My sister's computer died the other day

[47of74]

She called me about it because it wouldn't bring up Windows. I did some looking up on the error code she gave me and it was something related to the hard disk. The machine was about 4.5 years old, so she's planning on getting a new machine some time in the near future. I've been trying to talk her into doing what I and our brother have both done, that is getting a computer from a certain fruit company that we've gotten our machines from.

She said that the Macs are so expensive. But I did ask her to at least give serious consideration to a Mac. I told her it'd even be better for her if something goes wrong because she lives in St. Louis and has two Apple Stores nearby complete with genius bars which in some cases can even fix the problem same day.

[NoQuarter]

1. Well, you get what you pay for.

When you take a Mac out of the box, you can do stuff. When you take a Windoze PC out of the box, you have to fix stuff.

My 6 year-old iBook G4 is running Leopard 10.5.7, as is my shiny new 24" iMac 2.93GHz C2D.

[47of74]

5. My brother had an iBook G4

It died late last summer at the age of 4.5 years due to the logic board giving out. At the time he was running what was the latest version of Leopard along with fairly new software with no trouble at all. If it hadn't been for that he would still probably be using that iBook today. He was so happy to come back from his exile to an old Windows laptop we had at home to the MacBook - which he ordered the moment they became available on the Apple store after Jobs introduced them.

[NoQuarter]

2. Oh, and of course

your sister can run Windows on it, too (if she must). Many PC magazine reviewers are acknowledging that the M$ OS runs better on a Mac anyway.

[MagickMuffin]

3. Macs are Expensive: But..........Do the Math

Macs have a better longer lifespan. So, if sis buys a Windows machine she will probably have to invest in another machine in 4.5 years and the cycle will continue. Or she could purchase a Mac and be set for twice as long.

She could also buy a refurb for a lot less if she would rather go that route. Hubby bought a refurb 17" G4 laptop, when it arrived the screen was bad, he called them and they sent him a new one and he sent the other back. He hasn't had a problem with it, even got Apple-Care just in case he needed it.

All our Macs are old, but still function without any flaws. We have 4 G4's, 2 laptops daily use, an 17" swivel iMac, and a desktop.

[47of74]

4. She wound up going with a MacBook Pro

The price argument was the first thing she whipped out when I first mentioned getting a Mac, so what does she do? She goes and gets a more expensive MacBook Pro. So now I've got the old style white MacBook, my brother's got an aluminum MacBook, and she has a shiny new MacBook Pro. If mom doesn't get something else I might get her a mini or even an iMac for Christmas, and then all the computers in our family will be Macs.

[comtec]

6. I would have agree'd with you about hardware quality 4/5 years ago

But since all Mac hardware is PC hardware, that argument doesn't fly anymore.

I'm willing to admit that the old G's were durable and good units. Motorola makes good processors (my company uses them).
However everything is the exact same as that windows box over there.

The only reason to get mac's now is style. and yes the OS is a part of that style.

At least be honest about the current advantages vs price.

The current stuff is NOT your old, reliable Gx hardware. it's, well, it's intel crap!

Hee Hee now, let me buy a green AMD Mac, and I may change my tune ;)

and FWIW I like the Mac mini, but it's over priced and under-performing. Always has been, which is a pity. It's always been about 200 more than I'm willing to pay for it... which has always been my beef with Apple. Always just too much. If they lowered prices, I guarantee the market share would skyrocket!