My next device will be an Apple

[Edcculus]

Any company that produced a piece of software as atrocious as iTunes is not going to convince me to give up on PCs. Have an iPad and really hate the walled garden approach. Also, programmes crash all the time on iOS and OS X, it's just that Apple users never seem to want to admit it. Perhaps it's because they spend so much money buying into the ecosystem that they are embarrassed to admit it's far from perfect.

I'm honestly not in denial. I work on a Mac and PC at work all day. Neither one really crashes more than the other. Actually, the only things that crash on my Mac are the Microsoft programs.

Also, let's just clear something up here. An Apple computer does not have the walled garden thing like an iPhone. You can download and install any software from any source. OSX does have an App Store, but you don't have to use it. I agree, iTunes does suck. You are not required to use it though. You can buy music from any source you want (google play, Amazon, pirating if that's your thing) and use any music player or manager you want. Heck, they even make an OS X version of Winamp!

 

[bakerbarber]

Overpriced.

I don't have issues with Windows 8.1.

My laptop, an HP core i7, can run Hackentosh. So, yeah Macs are overpriced.

My next computer will be Windows. The hardware doesn't justify the mark up with Apple. The software is different. Not better.

Linux seems too complicated.

I'm all for quality. I believe in value too. Also choice. Lots of Windows' criticism is related to cheap hardware.

My PC and Android devices never crashed because of a string of Unicode text...

 

[Toothpick]

Another case of YMMV.

I've had my Mac Mini since 2012. Not one issue with it. Before that I've had PC's my whole life. I can't even tell you how many times I had to do a system restore on every single one of them. And on my mothers PC, and on my brothers PC.

With my Mac I don't have to worry because it simply works when I want it to work. I plan on my Mac working until I can afford to buy another Mac. This year, next year, 4 years....how ever long that is chances are very high I'll still be using the Mac without ever having to do anything but wake it up from sleep mode.

 

[Jeff Rage]

What? Nobody is still running vista like me? All you new kids, and your new gear

Actually I do! I need to get my new box built and put Win7 on it.

 

[StillShaving]

I thought this was going to be a thread about iOS vs Android. For many people choosing between those two is also like choosing a political allegiance or rooting for your favorite sports team. One interesting factoid about the smart phone market that I found very interesting is that Apple makes 90% of the profits, while Android handsets make up 80% of the market share on a worldwide basis.

OS X is good but I am not sure the underlying hardware and software is worth the price premium. Windows 7/8 is not ideal but continues to improve and does not get in the way so much. e.g. boots fast and allowing me to load my desired application more quickly, usually the same one I would run under OS X.

 

[DCRIII]

I have never owned an Apple product.

I have a I-pod shuffle, but I won that. Other than that I am a P.C. guy through and through.

 

[BigJ]

Then, Apple can tell you how to use your device.

Ain't no way out with the majors, baby.

+1. We have had terrific experience with the Apple Store, especially the Genius Bar. (They have helped us solve some Comcast problems.)

 

[thematthatter]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Ubuntu rocks! I got so irritated at MS when Win8 came out, I finally once and for all cut all ties to WinDohs and went full bore Linux. I tried Linux several times over the last decade or two and it always had a little too much of a geeky edge to it. But the recent Ubuntu distros are really easy to install and use. Did I mention free? A lot more software available for Linux than either Windoze or Mac, and most of it is free. Not free as in a free crippled version but buy the deluxe version to have somethig useful, but actually free. I would urge you to give Ubuntu a try. Or Mint, which I have not tried, but I understand it is very windows-like in the UI. Lets see... graphics? Linux does that best. Video capture, editing, ripping, transcoding? Linux does it best. Batch file editing tagging and otherwise processing? Linux does that best, too. Audio file editing and retagging? Linux, though Winblows isn't far behind IF you pay for the apps. Security? Linux Linux Linux. Power and flexibility? Linux. Command line operations? Linux Terminal beats them all. There is an urban legend going around that Linux doesn't play nicely with Office files. Not not not not true. Set your preferences correctly and it does just fine.

For running windows apps in Linux you can use Wine or VMware, but really, there is no need to use these sometimes kludgy and imperfect workarounds when there are native linux apps to do the job. Free ones, for the most part. Free, free, free.

But FWIW Win10 should be somewhat better than 8.1. YMMV I am sure. They always follow a decent OS version with one that sucks, and then follow the sucky one with a more better one. Or less worser one. It alternates. Decent, sucky, decent, sucky. 8 and 8.1 which was simply a minor fix to stop the howls of betrayed outrage from ex Win7 users, were collectively in the "Sucky" category. So by that logic, Win10 will be in the "Less Worser" category. JMHO.

Mavericks and Yosemite have both been free upgrades.
Plus for the nerdy, the terminal on macbook uses linux commands.

 

[Edcculus]

OS X had been historically very cheap (less than $50) and more recently free to upgrade. It's also built on a Unix base, so you will find the terminal a very familiar place if you are a Linux user.

 

[oc_in_fw]

OS X had been historically very cheap (less than $50) and more recently free to upgrade. It's also built on a Unix base, so you will find the terminal a very familiar place if you are a Linux user.

Actually FreeBSD, which is quite similar

 

[Proinsias]

I was under the impression the base was Unix, but mainly in the form of Darwin as opposed to FreeBSD....not to say there's not FreeBSD code floating around in there.

 

[kooh]

I was under the impression the base was Unix, but mainly in the form of Darwin as opposed to FreeBSD....not to say there's not FreeBSD code floating around in there.

OS X is not just based on UNIX; it is a certified UNIX distribution.

http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/certificates/1201p.pdf

 

[Proinsias]

Yeah, both Darwin and OSX are Unix. FreeBSD alongside linux/gnu is more unix-like. If you're comfortable using the terminal on any of them they're not too hard to transition between. After using osx for years, then linux for the past few years and a little foray into open/freebsd, I've found myself really appreciating the osx terminal.

 

[DesertJake]

Meh. Either way is fine by me. I actually like Windows 10 quite a bit, and more than OSX, but I can use either with no problem. I've owned laptops of both, desktops of both, heck phones and tablets of both too.

Windows these days is perfectly stable if you run decent hardware and don't do stupid things like load up adware and crap that some random website tells you too. With laptops especially, people are often impressed mostly because they've gone from some $400-500 PC laptop up to a $1500 Macbook which, surprise, has superior hardware.

That said, if I was a unix guy I would probably gravitate more towards Macs. The software I use mostly runs on both, other than some specific authoring programs that are Windows only. I have a hackintosh boot drive just for kicks, but I rarely feel like going into it.