Its not weather you want a mac or a pc, cause clearly that doesnt matter to you one way or the other as far as functionality, otherwise you would be like the rest of us and HATE one or the other. The key is prebuilt or build it yourself. This is where the finance/reliability in products will make the difference. Companies like mac, dell, gateway, dont want their products to last, otherwise people wouldnt have to keep buying them, their goal is to make money, learn how to build your own and I garuntee youll be better off. I say this as a person who has built 3 machines, and have been a mac/pc user for over 10 years. www.newegg.com is your friend.
personally You should build your own, if you want some help.. lemme know you can get away with building your own for alot cheaper then buying one. if your interested, I can design you one and give you the links so you can order all the parts? any way.. message me if you want too.
If you're gonna buy it locally, I suggest go to Walmart and getting some toshiba or dell laptop, also the acers have been getting better... Find a good deal, http://www.slickdeals.net has a great listing, so sometimes you can get a really good laptop for 700$
I just looked at that site, and theres a really good deal on a Lenovo laptop. I have an older model of the same one, and it has lasted me 2 years of medium use, so far so good... http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=1187553
Ive never used a mac, they look really cool but so non-user friendly and Im a sucker for doing things the old fashioned way (the way I know lol) If you can get a sweet Windows Laptop for a good price it will be more end-user friendly and you wont have to worry about searching for Mac OS exclusive programs and software since its more "standard" Just dont buy a toshiba laptop. I blew $1500 on one a couple years ago when the centrino processor first came out, and the computer was dead by a year later.
Macs are horrendously overpriced for the piddly hardware you get, wheras, on newegg at least, you can find excellent laptops for 600-1000. Of course, that comes at a loss of stability, so I'd suggest switching to linux to fix that.
I would rather have an older Mac than brand new gay windows. Why I have an 02 powerbook G4, so awesome still.
Lies! I still can't believe there are people who honestly believe the bulletproof Mac theories. It used to make me laugh, now it's just getting sad. I'm hardly a Windows fanboy, but I am a realist and a computer technician. There is still a chance of getting infections on a Mac, albeit not as many as there are for a Windows machine, but the fact remains there are exploited weaknesses in Macs OS. I've seen a large amount of Mac failures in my time and people always seem surprised, "But...but...how...how am I having problems with my Mac? I thought nothing could ever go wrong with them." It gets to the point where just have to look at them and tell them to stop being so damn gullible. This is exactly how so many people are persuaded that PCs must be horrible and assume we should all blame Microsoft for our problems. I can understand your hesitation with purchasing a proprietary system after having many problems with a company. Personally, Dell is one of the hardest companies to deal with in a lot of situations. The only time you'll get what you might consider a quality machine is if you are buying reliable business systems such as servers. People shell out more money for servers and in return these companies will invest in quality parts and more reliability. But a standard consumer PC won't come with such guarantees. It's not to say that a personal computer from Dell won't last a long time, but the reliability becomes less solid as the price tag gets lower. Now that we've established that proprietary systems aren't the best option you should look into building your own computer. Many people are hesitant to do this, but after you do it the first time you realize it's a piece of cake. I've built somewhere in the range of 100 computers, problems do occur but it's usually a pretty simple to just send a part back and get a replacement. Many parts will come with their individual warranties and the warranties are MUCH better than what any company will provide dollar to dollar. Also, I would like to add that I don't run any antivirus or spyware programs and I NEVER get any infections. Most people are careless about what they are doing and their computers and any infections are a direct result of carelessness.
I've had my powerbook for over 4-5 years, never had an issue, EVER. Then again, I don't DL much porn. I've had problems with Dell, and it was never even connected to the internet. GAWD I HATE WINDOWS with a passion.
Similarly I have witnessed many PCs run just as flawlessly for just as long. It really proves nothing. And just because a person opts to not buy a Mac doesn't mean they have to use Windows.
well its really up to you? If i weren't into gaming/exclusive apps I'd go mac (BUT $1000 WILL GET YOU A SHITTY MACBOOK) get a macbook the newer ones not the $999 one and you're set man If i were (am), I'd go windows