andylangager.net

Do you post these questions because you don't have answers? Why do Dell computers cost less than Apple computers? Is it because Apple charges extra in order to reward its customer base's hollow sense of technological superiority? I was just wondering...

Is it too soon to ask you these questions? Should I just go and ask Corc? I've been waiting for you to decompress from your employment affiliation before I dropped these Apple bombs on you. Is it too soon, though? If so, could you at least tell me what night the season premiere of Boston Legal is?

BURN!!

You're right, it's not such a dumb question. Just one we get all the time.

Short answer: Because you get what you pay for.

Long answer: The popular answer is anyone can build a Windows computer. Only Apple can build an Apple computer*. Thus, you're paying a proprietary tax because Apple has no competition if you want an Apple Computer.

But, I think the real answer is because they are worth it and because they don't make extremely low end computers like Dell does. With Dell, you can find a laptop starting at $350 but it's not going to come with anything very useful (Windows Vista Home Basic... yay!). There are exceptions but all in all Apple software > Microsoft software for the average user. I've heard so many stories of people losing their data to a Windows crash.

Macs come with everything you need at their price, with better support. I don't know where else you can bring your computer in and get such superior free trouble-shooting or, as I've helped people do in the past, help people (for free) on their last minute project.

Also see this article which shows how the prices aren't really that much different:

http://kurafire.net/log/archive/2006/04/25/debunking-the-price-myth-apple-vs-dell

Why do you insist on suggesting I read your sources? Just tell me what you want me to believe and I will believe it! I don't need proof!

And when does Boston Legal start?

September 25. With special guest stars John Larroquette and William Shatner's double chin.

"People losing their data to a Windows crash"?

More like-
"People having their Dell not recognize their CD drive and then having a customer service rep -- no wait, three customer service reps -- team up to delete all of their data."

I'm sort of an "either-or" guy, mainly because I use both types of PC at work and feel like I know them both equally (which is to say, enough to get by). Right now we own a Windows-based PC at home, mainly because my wife has pretty much never used an Apple (aside from maybe playing Gertrude's Puzzles on a IIG back in sixth grade), but we're looking at buying an Apple and have been for a while.

That article brings up a lot of points that I realized shortly after purchasing my Dell that had a cheaper sticker price than a similar Apple but ended up costing about the same when I swiped my card.

But my big argument FOR buying an Apple computer is the resale value. When you want to upgrade, you can sell the computers for quite a bit more than you could a Windows-based machine. At my job, we have a heavily-used internal classifieds site that has a lot of transactions (I sold my car on it in like two days), but I've noticed that used computers never really sell unless they are Apples. I think one of the reasons is because there are IT guys here that just rebuild Windows computers and try and sell them for half of what you could get a new one for. People tend to sell their used Apples for similar prices as used Dells or HPs because they are, in essence, just "used computers." And that's when buyers see that they cost about the same and think, "I can get a Mac for the same price as a Dell" (either thinking that Macs are better because they know they are, or because they know Macs have a higher sticker price -- thus making them better). And I think the buyers also know that computer geeks aren't out there just rebuilding Macs and selling them.

And when does Boston Legal start?

Not having to deal with those annoying pop up messages is worth the price of a Mac alone.

As David Pogue says, you don't need a message to appear anytime something happens successfully on your computer. I plugged in a USB device... tell me if something is wrong, not if it's successful.

Windows is full of these annoying messages (especially Internet Explorer).

At Aimee's work they are so paranoid about security on Windows she has to have a system administrator put in a password anytime she plugs in a USB device - including a mouse.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/7

By the way Siskow that video is sure to annoy you if I know you at all. But try to make it past the song.

So are you saying I should just go ask Corc about the whatevers and the somehows of Apple's dynastic empire of clearly superior products?

Oh hi Cody I thought you were dead. Probably my fault, though. I equate everyone's physical status with the state of their websites. For example, did you know Dustin has been in a coma since July 31st?

Andy hit all the points I'd make in the Apple vs. PC price discussion. You get a lot more for the price, and you get more support behind it. Every time I have had to call Apple, I speak to a real live person (in the US) within 4-5 minutes of dialing the phone. And you can make Genius Bar™ appointments online, so you don't have to get to the store until a few minutes before your scheduled time. I've only done this twice, but I've never had to wait more than 5 minutes past my appointment time because the Apple Genius™ was helping the previous person.

I switched my parents and my sister to Apples mainly because I knew how much easier they are to operate, but also because I was tired of getting tech support calls when one of their PCs took a crap. (My dad, ever the holdout, still has a couple PCs, but he knows that I don't offer Windows support anymore.)

I try not to evangelize about Apple anymore when people ask me why I use them, because to someone who has never used OS X, a computer is a computer is a computer, and there's not much you can do to convince them otherwise.

And some people don't deserve to use a Mac.

PS: Anyone want to buy a Powerbook?

I am actually interested in this answer and not trying to make you feel like the only Windows user: How do you like your Windows machine, Cody?

SSSHHHHHH!!! Boston Legal is on...

Is Sean a warlock? Can he turn his parents back into humans from Apples? Did he 'switch' them to Apples because they angered him in some way?

And don't worry, you hoity-toity Apple yuppies: As soon as I get my piece of the pie I'll be movin' on up from my Dell to an Apple computer, too!

Jans out.

Jans not out just yet:

And does anyone else notice how the cultish-Apple plutocracy require multiple paragraphs and hyperlink support in order to push their pro-Apple agendas? Meanwhile, my arguments hit you upside yo' head in short, powerful bursts and are based purely on my belief that Apples only fit on marble desks within ivory towers in gated communities.

Notch up another debate victory for ol' dead Cody.

Would you buy a Mac if James Spader had one?

I didn't know this was a debate. I considered it more of Andy & myself enlightening Cody about why Macs are superior and why people who use PCs clearly have some sort of chemical deficiency in their brains. Maybe they have a slight unconscious tendency towards masochism, and that's why they continue to use Windows. Or perhaps a secret crush on Steve Ballmer.

It all comes down to personal preference. People who love Macs will tell you that there is nothing better, and that Macs Just Work®, but some PC users just don't want to hear it. A lot of them will tell you that they don't want to buy a Mac because they're not sheep and want a choice. Then they go back to using Windows, which, at last glance, still has a 97% market share. But at least they're not doing what everyone else is doing.

PS I am human and I still have a Powerbook for sale.

I changed my mind. Macs aren't that great. They're for latte-sipping yuppies who listen to Bright Eyes while SMSing on their iPhone while driving their new Audi. And they probably have those thick black-rimmed glasses and unkempt hair with ironic t-shirts that have the A-Team or the Kool-Aid guy on them. They do nothing all day but hit the refresh button on DailyKos.com and wonder who will be on the Colbert Report that night. They probably have something French-sounding for dinner at a restaurant that instead of a name is just called "&" or "@."

Not that there's anything wrong with the A-Team.

Posting this comment from my iPhone while sipping a latté in my Audi, just to prove a point.

I'm also trying to sell a Powerbook.

I'll give you an A-Team t-shirt for it.

I'm gonna have to go 'head and ask you to never talk of Bright Eyes ever again. I can read Apple propaganda and contain my vomit to just my mouth, but to be ruthlessly attacked on two fronts may force my vomit to spew out onto my Dell. Now, I realize that all you yuppie puppies want to destroy my poor-man's computer and I think this is unjust. I want to be a yuppie, too! Just let me get a job and a cookie cutter house in the 'burbs and we can all stand shoulder to shoulder on our luscious green lawns fighting the rich man's fight against the filthy lower middle-class as they stand on the public sidewalk in front of their low-income housing projects!

One day we can all be brothers in arms. Only we will be brothers in Apples.