Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I have been a loyal Apple (then Mac) user for about 26 years.

And then I got this iBook.
Actually, I got the original iBook. The one that went through 3 motherboards in a year? And then had to be sent back to the Apple repair facility each time, making me lose 2-4 days of work? And had all the screws stripped out and the clutch assembly (the thing that holds the monitor part steady) broken by the repair techs?
So I sold that one, thinking it was a lemon, and bought another one. My warranty is about to run out so of course my airport card is now on the blink and probably needs to be sent in before the warranty expires. Losing me ... yes ... another several days of work.

I was considering just purchasing a new MacBook (and breaking my boycott of the product for having the dumbest name in marketing history) but do I really want to go through all of this again?

Is it time to get a Dell?

Please share your stories of how other companies totally alienate their loyal fans with bad products and poor support for these products.

(And if you have any suggestions on how to fix my dilemma - do I have to complain my way up the chair over there??? - please let me know.)

NIKOLE,
I totally feel you on this subject. I think that you just made me change my mind on purchasing a Mac Pro.
So much for that. As for a DELL? NO, NO, NO....
You will go from bad to worse.

Dell By far has lost every inch of credibility. If you think MAC is bad wait till you dish out 1500 to 2500 on a Dell only to find out they are a piece of[explicit].
This is whats going to happen if you go with Dell. It will be the greatest machine ever for like the first 6 months, then you will start seeing it getting slower, and slower, to the point you can`t even do nothing but turn the computer off and hit the F11 key to rest the computer and reinstall all your pre installed software and have to start all over again. [not to mention you will loose alot of information unless you upload everything to your hosting server and use it as a temp server while you reset your machine.

Then, if a part goes out they made it where you have to purchase the parts from them. [this is not cool ].
My suggestion to you is: As a developer, I understand what your needs are so get a "Generic Computer" Generic mean a computer you put together.
There a great place online, where I purchase all my computers from and its called tigerdirect  you can purchase a barebone system and simply add your hard-drive, memory [as much as you want, or it can hold], Video Card and there you have it. Remember to purchase Windows XP Professional
A full system for about 700.00 bucks or so.
I just trashed two DELLS and purchased two dual core AMD`s 64s for about 800.00 and let me tell you. They run fast. they have 1 gig = 2x 512MB RAM modules <-- Proper way to configure a dual core<<
Since you are doing graphics, go with AMD they are more graphics and media friendly than Intel.

Intel is more for Pencil pushers and Office work. Not for Design.. so stick to AMD..




-------------------------

Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

I`ve gotta say that as  PC user throughout, I`ve been thinking more and more to switching over to a Mac.

If you`ve been using a Mac and you`ve been happy, I`d argue in favor of staying with the system, and accepting that every so often a particular model just isn`t all that great. With the way PCs are going, I can`t see any kind of future remotely associated with stability, simplicity, unification, standardization, or anything other than never-ending confusion.

I actually do LOVE using a mac and can`t imagine ever developing on a Windows machine. (We have a windows desktop that I built for my husband with an AMD chip and WinXP ... I use it to do some cross-platform checking on IE6/Win and Firefox/Win.)

I`m just hoping these next generation machines perform better! I actually found a stat online from a user survey of people who had my same iBook. According to the survey, a whopping 55% of these machines had to go in for at least one logic board replacement in the first year! (I think there was a whole class action lawsuit for one model in particular.)

And seriously ... MacBook? Dumbest name EV-AH. Plus it`s bigger (they no longer make a 12" model ... maybe for these reasons!) and heavier.

Craig, the newest generation Intel chips (coming soon) are supposed to run considerably cooler too.

I`ve been a dedicated Mac user for over two decades. My last three Macs
were laptops until I broke down and got an iMac so I can design artwork
on a fancy 20 inch screen. This current iMac is the only Mac I`ve ever had
any technical issues with. It sometimes goes into a scrolling/zoom spaz
and I have to restart and sometimes I can save and sometimes I lose
work.

I`ve never had any serious hardware issues with any of my computers but
of course, I have heard stories like yours Nikole. A friend of mine had an
older MacBook that went on the fritz. However, in my personal
experience, Apple is still making solid products. My next Mac is going to
be laptop again.

Nikole, if you want to stick with Apple, perhaps you can do a little more
consumer research on the specific model and compare it to the info you
found about your bad Mac. With any product, you`ll find disgruntled
customers but how much of that do you find?

I`ve been a MacAvangelist since the Mac classic (you can do the math, I`m not sharing the years). I`ve never had a hardware problem but I`ve never worked on any of the iBook or iMac series. For the past few years I worked with a company that required me to work on a Dell system. It was okay but it seemed everytime we had a major software upgrade it was too powerful for the system and we needed to update our equipment which created a lot of disruptions.

Now that I work for myself I do use the MacBook Pro (hooked into my 30 inch Apple monitor - yeah baby) and am very pleased with it. However, because I heavily rely on Adobe products I`m disappointed with the performance of Rossette. I hear Adobe is due to release CS3 in April which should solve most the software problems I`m experiencing.

I have heard things on both sides of the fence. Personally...I have always been a PC user...so Mac is fairly foreign to me except what I drool on when I hit the Apple store. From everything every IT guy has EVER told me...for graphics design and that type of work...there is nothing better than Mac.  It is definitely hard to hear that you are having troubles...I have always wondered what it would be like to have a Mac instead of a Dell. Personally...I haven`t had any major issue with Dell...although...like Edgar said...I have mutted mine so badly over the years that it probably isn`t a dell anymore...just a dell shell (HA...that rhymed). If you do decide to go with a PC over a Mac...definitely white box it...or as Edgar put it...generic. There are TONS of places Frys is great for this...where they can build you exactly what you want and how you want it or help you do it yourself. It sounds like you are familiar with this process though since you did it for your husband.

I have had similar experiences with service providers over the years...and one cell phone company who I would like to throw very heavy objects at! All in all...I have been pretty strong in my convictions to never go back to those companies....at least not until they prove that they are worthy of my business. I don`t reward companies who don`t provide decent products, good customer service, and quality in everything that they do.

Best of luck...I know it is hard when the puter is the problem...the silly things become an extension of us and when they are down...we are down!!!

-------------------------

Leah Tucker

RDG - I hear what you are saying. I could type on my Apple IIe before I knew how to write cursive as a kid! (My grandma worked for Apple - she was one of their original employees and stayed there for 20 years.)

I talked with them this morning. I have to send it in. Now I just have to figure out what to do without a machine for 3-5 days. :-(
I can still use the PC, sure, but a lot of the programs and all my old emails will just be sitting on my backup drive! Thank goodness for webmail.

There are two basic issues about PC systems that break down in complex situations. The Mac, right from the very beginning, has always put a sort of location memo on every single file. That means that no matter what you see or try to open, the system knows what it was created with, where it sits on the system, and so forth.

Windows tried to do this with "properties," "shortcuts," and other workarounds, but those lists remain separated from the actual file. So with a Mac, it`s easier to find files, open them up with the correct software, and stuff like that.

The other issue is that Mac, being second and trying a bit harder, continues to try and work with lots of software companies. Microsoft, being a giant, tends to not care at all if something is compatible.

When my co-author finally threw up his hands and went to a Mac, he found that in most cases of typical software, the Mac opened all previous files created on a PC without any real trouble. However, when he saved his work and tried to open them on the Windows version, they usually blew up or were corrupted, or had missing features and parts.

Most of what Windows has been doing for the past 15 years has been an attempt to add in AFTER the fact, all the functionality of the Mac OS and underlying technology. Even the USB port everyone is using these days was originally developed in "Fire Wire" (and much better, technologically) by the Mac folks.

It`s only that IBM and Microsoft are so big that they`ve dominated the computer industry over the past decades. That, and the poor decision by Apple to continue being proprietary in many secondary areas. Now, with Apply trying to incorporate Intel chips, being partly owned by Microsoft, who knows what`ll happen. I`ve heard good things about OS/X, which is basically Unix, so it`d be pretty hard to break.