How well does the MacBook tech age?

karlballard wrote:

Well I'm looking at the MacBook Pro w/ Retina Display with a 16GB RAM.

I'm not a gamer when it comes to laptops. Just the odd game here and then to cure the boredom but nothing major, like a football management game.

That would work, 16GB, means you already know the Retina cannot be upgraded later on.

Of course no Superdrive, but external option is perhaps better as it places the wear and tear on a disposable device instead.

Just be prepared for the glossy screen glare and because the machine is sealed up, you can't clean the exhaust ports of dust, so 4-5 years of near daily use, less in a animal hair or dusty enviroment.

The regular 15" antiglare can be opened and cleaned btw, and the RAM and storage upgraded.

OS x upgrades shouldn't be too much trouble as Retinas have a SSD, I advise getting the largest one.

So do Mac's, and Apple upgrades the operating system annually now (a paid upgrade also all third party software) and if you don't do it, go along with their hairbrained UI changes and bloated OS slowing your machine down, then eventually your denied security updates.

That's the raw frigging truth. It might hurt running anti-virus etc., on a Windows PC (MSE not), but if you make backups you can resotre and use the machne for a decade easily, not a Mac, Apple won't allow it.

Mac's run the same Intel processors as PC's, the 13" overheats like any other $400 OfficeMac laptop.

Most all Mac's are sealed up, so you can't access the back of the fans to clean the dust from the rear grills, it's overheats the machines and kills them faster.

Mac's have a lot nicer OS, and the monitors are always good so it shows the OS nicely, but Windows 7 looks good on a good monitor too, it's just a lot of PC's use cheap crappy monitors.

If you can find a good PC hardware vendor, make system restore disks and know how to take care of Windows 7 (fresh installs make it fast again), it's not bad at all and the software you buy once will last a decade or longer as you change hardware, just reinstall it.

Also you have the most software choices on Windows, a lot of Mac users, myself included, have to run Windows to run needed software. 😟

On a Mac, because Apple changes OS X so often, if your hardware dies, your looking at buying all newer versions of software to match the newer OS sold on newer hardware.

Least with most PC's one can open them up and fix something, on a Mac you have to buy AppleCare because it's a fortune to fix them and a new machine is a better decision in a lot of cases.

3 years of AppleCare are over, your running on fumes if something goes wrong. A PC can be disposed of and another one gotten.

I've spend over $10,000 in ten years on Apple computers, when my Dell XP desktop using friend has only spend $1000 over that same time period.

It takes a lot of money and love to hang in this pool. Believe me, why do you think Apple builds all those fancy stores with? 😁

If your into making money, your in the wrong place. If your into blowing money to get the best computing experience then welcome to the club. 😉

Mac buying and maintenance advice

Thomas A Reed wrote:

Suffice it to say that much of what you said appears to be based on misconceptions, misunderstanding, hearsay, vilification of Apple and a better understanding of Windows than of Mac OS X.

Based upon experience installing various operating systems on hardware and the only vilification of Apple is seems to be through your rose colored glasses. 😁

Did you buy those or did Apple send them to you? 😝 🙂

There are a lot of things to like about Apple and their products, but I'm not going to outright LIE to someone and say Mac's never slow down just to satisfy the fanbois.

The TRUTH is right there in the search box. "Mac slow"

And the fact that I had to write a User Tip explaining WHY Mac's slow down and what steps to do to cure the problem, hello defrag for one.

Why is my computer slow?

So yes, Mac's DO slow down like Windows PC's, the slowdown is faster on less powerful hardware, than on more powerful hardware.

End of story. 😉

My experience with Macs is less extreme than ds store's, but no less legitimate as a means of evaluation.

- iBook 2004: still running fine, had to change the lithium battery

- MacBook Pro 2009: still running fine, upgraded to SSD, 8GB RAM (purchased as Apple refurb)

- MacBook Pro 2010: still running fine, no upgrades (purchased as Apple refurb)

- iMac 2009: still running fine, no upgrades (purchased as Apple refurb)

Regular upgrades (like from Lion to Mountain Lion) cost $29.

The above machines have no mechanical problems yet. As with any electronics, pay attention to any issues relating to heat, which can cause problems down the line, shortening the life of your investment.

I would advise you to disregard most of what ds store has said.

Macs definitively DO NOT slow down over time the way Windows machines do, provided that you are not trying to install a system or software that is too advanced for the hardware to handle. My 2010 MacBook Pro is running Mountain Lion (Mac OS X 10.8) just as well as the system it shipped with (Snow Leopard, aka Mac OS X 10.6). Further, my 9-year-old PowerBook G4 is still in active use at my wife's business, albeit with a system a couple versions out-of-date. It is by far the oldest machine in what is otherwise an entirely Windows environment, where no other machine has lasted for more than 4 years. Even restoring those old Windows machines to factory conditions doesn't help, which never ceases to puzzle me after years of experience with Macs.

I've been using Macs since 1984 and supporting them off and on since 1992. As long as you don't install any junk software and don't have the bad luck to get defective hardware, you'll have good luck with a Mac.

"Consumer Reports, for example, rates Apple as the most reliable notebook brand, based on surveys of more than 23,000 of its readers who purchased a laptop between 2009 and 2012."

That answer your question?

karlballard wrote:

So by what your saying, it should age pretty well?

If you buy the higher end 15", it will last the longest and better though the annual OS X upgrades than the lower performance models.

The antiglare model is best to see the screen in nearly all enviroments, avoid the glossy if you can

The debate and complaints about glossy screens are sprad wide online, you can read for yourself

mainly like iTunes and photo editing software

That's no problem on most machines, however Photoshop your better off on the higher end machine with a SSD

the odd game or two.

Most all laptops are not 3D gaming machines, if your going to do that you for sure need the high end 15"

There is a serious problem with 3D gaming on Mac's, if your a serious online gamer, then you really need to get a Windows 7 PC tower.

Casual gaming is fine on a Mac, trouble is the choice selection is mostly for Windows, and thus Apple's Bootcamp and Windows 7.

Don't know about Windows 8 coming out, that will be quite a chore/challenge/wildcard. No idea if Apple will support it or Microsoft will allow it.

Thomas A Reed wrote:

Macs definitively DO NOT slow down over time the way Windows machines do

They sure do, just like Windows machines.

What occurs on Windows machines is a lot of PC vendor installed bloatware tends to cripple them, but either a fresh install of Windows and/or running PCDecrapifier to remove the unnecessary processes evens the playing field between Mac's and Windows machines.

Going by that level playing field, Mac's and Windows machines both tend to slow down, however it's more so on Mac's because Apple is a hardware company and has control of the OS, thus are motivated to cause a higher hardware turnover rate. Why Apple upgrades OS X annually and denies security updates for anything but the the most used OS X versions. For instance 10.5 and 10.4 are not receiving anything, which make up about 20% of the OS X market.

Likely why the Flashback botnet is still around

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_BackDoor.Flashback

I've refreshed many Windows PC's, from XP to Vista to Win 7, yes NOW that Microsoft wants to kill off XP is that it's slowing down considerably, but if you think about it, Microsoft is a software company, so they are essentially slowing down XP to force users to Windows 7.

With Apple they force one into annual OS X upgrades that then slows down the machine, which causes a faster hardware turnover rate. With Microsoft they support their operating system for a decade on average, Windows 7 will receive support until 2020.

Sure one can stick with 10.6 like I am for performance on my 2 year old machine, but Apple is going to cut us 10.6 users off soon and basically force us into using the slower 10.7 or 10.8 operating systems.

If I ran Windows 7 on my Mac, I could maintain my performance until 2020.

Even restoring those old Windows machines to factory conditions doesn't help, which never ceases to puzzle me after years of experience with Macs.

I've had no problem making Windows as fast as it can be to what the hardware allows, in fact I can make Windows UI even more responsive than OS X as Apple hobbles the OS to give a uniform appearance.

Windows has options to turn off various eyecandy features that can increase the UI response, OS X does not and is loaded with eyecandy slowing it down.

Mac's and Windows PC's use the same exact Intel processors and storage drives.

I've installed Windows, OS X and Linux on various PC's, if you really want a fast OS, Linux is the baby. with Linux there are small versions that run entirely in RAM for the fastest speed.

What a lot of people complain about is their "PC is slowing down" occurs on Mac's too, it's because it's the way hard drives work. They are fast if the data you need most is near the front and slows down if the data you need most is further down on the slower parts of the drive.

With OS updates and upgrades, data gets written past users data on the slower parts of the drive.

If you search this forum you will find many users saying "Iv'e upgraded from 10.5 to 10.6 and it slowed my machine down"

10.6 is tested significantly faster than 10.5 FRESHLY installed on the same hardware, it's because there are updated video drivers/graphics for 10.6.

10.6 was a good upgrade choice for Intel processor using Mac's, it's the only OS X verison I've seen that actually was faster then the previous one.

Also if you serach for "I've upgraded 10.6 to 10.8 and my machine slowed down" it's not only because of writing the new OS to the slower parts of the hard drive, it's also because 10.8 is slower than 10.6

10.7 and 10.8 is designed for SSD's, where the data is accessed anywhere at the same speed.

So Apple now is going to go use all SSD's eventually, thus their operating system can be more bloated to take advantage of it.

Apple needs to bloat the OS to force hardware turnover, however Microsoft doesn't for hardware reasons, but for software ones, then only every 10 years, not every three years for hardware like Apple does.

So, for example say I'm planning on using it for general day to day use, mainly like iTunes and photo editing software and the odd game or two.

So by what your saying, it should age pretty well?

Absolutely. Future games may not function as well, depending on what hardware you buy, what kinds of games and how far in the future. However, when it comes to a given version of any given program on the system that shipped with the machine, the Mac will function as well at year 5 and beyond as on day 1, in my experience. In addition, you should be able to upgrade the system and other software safely for years without any noticeable degrade in performance.

One note: hard drives and batteries, no matter who makes them or what kind of computer they're in, suffer from failures and limited lifetimes. You will have to replace one or the other, possibly both, at some point.

They sure do, just like Windows machines.

I'm not going to even try to address the errors in such a lengthy post one at a time. Suffice it to say that much of what you said appears to be based on misconceptions, misunderstanding, hearsay, vilification of Apple and a better understanding of Windows than of Mac OS X.