buying a new PC for 2007? read on…

3rd of Jan, 2007ce* in: ideas

Often friends and family come up to me asking what computer they should buy, what type of laptop is best, how much ram and so on.
 
Being a windows user since the days when operating systems came on 3.5 inch discs, and having built / repaired various machines, I feel like I have some decent advice to give. People would tell me what they are primarily using the machine for and I could work out their needs for a decent price. I know through experience which machines to avoid and so on. I even got my Mother to join the 21st century by purchasing a Dell for use at home. When I was playing games like quake, PC’s were cheap to build, easy to repair and software was in abundance.
 

But at this point I’m going to have to crack a few skulls together. 2007 is the year of the Mac.

 
I converted to Mac last year after the intel 20″ iMac hit the stores. I bought it brand new from the Mac Store in Shibuya, previously I was the proud owner of an ultra powerful HP graphics station laptop. Before it melted due to a (now) well known and admitted configuration problem. Seeing OSX in operation at friends houses really made me think about how much I hate using windows, and how little I really know about diving into the configuration of a windows machine.

Mac?! I hear you cry. Bloody expensive and slow. Can’t run word or office. Well, these days, it’s not really the case. Mac has evolved, and you’d well to consider buying one to replace your heap of junk you are reading this on now. So I give you my top 5 (unordered) reasons to make the switch:

• beauty

  Examine the following screen shot if you will Exhibit A. You will notice that the fonts look much nicer on a mac. Big deal? Well yes actually, it is. Can you imagine if your weekly newspaper or often bought magazine looked like the windows browsing experience? Crude jaggy fonts that have haphazard spacing, with pixelated images. As Web becomes our more viewed source for written information, think of Mac’s superior font and image rendering capabilities as a treat for your eyes. Mac have a long history of being at the forefront of digital printing, fonts are very integral to the operating system.

  Not to mention how happy you will feel getting your mac laptop out in public, remember folks, 2007 is also the year of the laptop!

• family

  Those with family well know, the internet is a dodgy place, and the last thing you want is your kids reading your email or accidently wiping your family photos or office docs. Also random users of the family computer will end up installing strange software, key loggers, viruses and adware. Mac gets around this problem with some very powerful family computer sharing tools, and you don’t even have to log out to switch profiles. Mac’s are for all intensive purposes immune to viruses, this is not entirely true, but to get viruses on your mac, you must install them. They don’t install on you, like in windows.

• price

  On average, Macs are a bit more expensive than your PC. Upgrading a PC is fine, but the day will come when you need to replace the whole rust bucket just as you would any appliance, for motherboard or case innovations. Your home computer, laptop, should be a thing of beauty as well as performance, just like a car or bike. You use a computer all the time… why not make it a pleasure to use? Macs are well worth the little bit extra.
  Saving money on purchasing your PC could be the worst mistake you make, because when it breaks down, I doubt the guy on ebay who you bought it from will really care. If you would like to know exactly how little the difference is, read more here: Exhibit B
  I had a DELL machine in the past, which needed to be replaced 3 times, all in the space of one year! Configured off the shelf hardware is not always reliable. PC hardware is often a testing ground for what works and what doesn’t, my previous HP laptop is a case in point.

• reliability

  Macs are built in a closed way, meaning that they make the computers work from the ground up. They make sure all the bits inside work with each other, and with the operating system. Windows has to cater for all hardware, so it’s not exactly efficient. Programs that hang your whole computer are rife on the PC. I have wasted many hours with windows crashing, or just locking up. Losing many important files or bits of art I was working on. Inside Mac OSX things happen a little differently. If a program crashes, just right click it’s icon in the dock and select “force quit”. The program gently disappears without effecting your work flow.

• ease of use

  “your computer may be at risk to…” blah blah blah. One thing I notice now about using windows is that it never shuts up, endless pop-ups telling me something is plugged in or I have to restart because windows just updated it’s self or something equally benign. Also right clicking to find out something on my computer, change a driver or just to get lost in the mindless drivel of new configuration windows, is, pointless.

  Mac realise this.

  Using Macs is the easiest experience in the computer world. Options both small and powerful are at your fingertips, not buried deep in right click menus. Want to change the entire operating systems language, simple, and quick, no restart needed. Want to see all the app windows you have open, just press F10. Want to install apache and run a home server? only two clicks away. Want to uninstall a useless bit of software? Just drag it to the trash-can and it will uninstall. Using Mac OSX really is this simple. When I’m done for the day, I put my mac to sleep as I would a laptop.

  Windows can be configured to shut up, but you have to pile though the internal workings of the operating system changing things that are very vulnerable to change. Only the highest of the windows geek order can perform such feats of trickery, leaving the average home user in a barrage of chatter.

So there you have it. If you feel your hunk ‘o junk doesn’t cut the mustard anymore, and are thinking of upgrading, it’s simple. Artists, musicians, coders, internet junkies and office users alike. Go on, treat yourself, you’ve earned it. And in most cases, you won’t even need to buy any software - mac comes with almost everything you need, anything windows specific you can run in boot camp or parallels.
 
I’ve already converted a few people (Jun, Neil, Scott) and my entire office is Mac based. I hope to have made you think a bit about your options for purchasing a computer in 2007.

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