I have to buy a bunch of computers every year for my research group, a mix of PC and Mac. It turns out that most Mac notebook actually last 5+ years. In fact, for most of them we get rid because of performance issue relative to the work need doing after 7 years. For PC, that has never happens (and we are not buying no name brand). So the total cost of ownership is way lower on that front. And do not get me started on Windows maintenance (better with Win 10 but still). Under the hood unix/linux remains, to me at least, the best choice of system in our research environment where a lots of simulation works is done.
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Generalization with no backup data and analysis. Well pointed out, Bluefrog!
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Psychologists know this as the False Consensus Effect. I see it all over the internet with monotonous regularity. I have lost count of the number of times I have pointed it out.
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Impossible
Until three months ago, my workhorse Mac was a 2012 MacBook Pro. My second in use was a 2013 MacBook Pro.
Great lifespans and far surpass any PC I’ve ever owned.
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What is impossible exactly? I am just stating facts here. I have been buying computers for my lab equipment and students for over 20 years. That is a lot of computers! But you do not have to believe me, that topic repeats itself in bigger business like IBM and others… Total cost of ownership over the life of the computer is smaller for Mac than PC and that is well documented.
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I’ve been unsuccessfully trying to retire a 2009 MacBookPro, it refuses to die.
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I was just commenting on “never” happens
I agree that Macs generally are less expensive over the long-run. I am a huge Mac fan and my family owns an embarrassing number of Mac devices. But I wouldn’t say they are “always” better; few things in the world are “always” or “never.”
While I use Macs extensively for myself and family, I generally buy inexpensive PC laptops for staff who need to work at home. Why? Two reasons- First a $500 PC is sufficient for what my staff needs to do at home, but there are no $500 Macbooks. Second in the evetn of loss/theft/damage I would prefer to limit my potential loss.
That said, my primary workhorse workstation for my own work is a new Mac Pro with 6 monitors - so every computer has its purpose.
Chromebooks are also fine for simple tasks. I got one but it’s gathering dust as I do more complex stuff than a Chrome browser allows me to use. Also, you could get really good deals on 2-3 year old MacbookPros and Airbooks, even down to $500. I might need to get a PeeCee just to check cross-compilation work, necessary evil. If so I get a Dell or Asus. Most other brands have cheap HW not worth bothering with.
I appreciate your hyperbole refers to the ‘never happens’. Apple dinged their reputation with me for the butterfly keyboard thing… However…
I had to have my screen replaced due to the peeling issue, they did it free within two days if I remember, and the battery replaced last year. It is now nearly 5 years old; a mid 2014 MacBook Pro that is going strong. There are a couple of slight imperfections with it now. However it is doing way better than any other other type of computer or operating system I ever had or used or use I should say.
I had a Dell ten years ago when I was financially strapped. It wasn’t cheap and a pixel went in the first week, leaving a dot that looked like a period on the screen for the whole time I had it. Dell’s response was ‘tough luck’ as was the dealer from whom I bought it. I used to go away for a week at a time and it took me over an hour every time to install updates…
Back at the turn of the millennium, I bought an Apple G4 Cube. Boy, did that model get some rotten tomatoes thrown at it. One of the biggest complaints was that it couldn’t be modified/upgraded. Since then I put in a new CPU motherboard, a new DVD drive to replace the CD drive, a new hard drive and a new video card.
It still runs, along with its matching display and Harmon-Karden “eyeball” speakers. It boots up in either Mac OS 9 or OS X 10.4 Tiger. And it is sometimes quite useful in recovering archival files. What would be comparable in the PC world?
I wish we could still change batteries and memory in our laptops without disassembling the doggone thing, but If you think new Macs can’t be tinkered with, check out a site called iFixit.com.
To which “us” are you referring?
And why do you need 32 GB of RAM and a TB SSD to browse the web? Wouldn’t a Chromebook suffice?
Katherine
Listen, I didn’t post to start an argument. I posted because someone asked me why I switched, so I answered.
And, you’re suffering from the exact problem you named. I have 40 years of IT experience, 30+ of it in Fortune 100 and Fortune 200 companies. I’ve forgotten more about computers than you know.
Where I work now (11,000+ employees), our Project Management software is web-based, our document management system is web-based, our IT help desk is web-based, our e-mail is web-based, our time reporting system is web-based, our customer support software is web-based…and I could go on.
Basically, if employees aren’t writing a Word or Excel document, they’re in Chrome. 90% of the day.
Quit living in a bubble. 95% of the world runs Windows, so I think it’s you that’s suffering from “False Consensus Effect” from 5% of the world’s computer users that use Macs.
I’m done with this forum. I don’t need this abuse for simply answering someone’s questions.
IMHO, no one needs to quit the forum because of saying what they believe/judge is being the reality. We are all limited by our own fields of vision given our professional context, history of career, and personal experience. You may be right that occasionally and randomly someone may be more likely to apply their own sensemaking than curiously ask “why would you think/do that?” first. Generally speaking and as far as I can tell, I believe that no one single member has intended to give a hard time to anyone merely based on their own vision. If it happened, you can choose to ignore or choose to explain. We don’t have to justify our view/reason every time. To me, all opinions have some right and wrong reasoning, good and bad idea - after all no one is attempting to debate the “truth” here even if we assume that there is one.
I had a history of using Mainframe/MiniComputer/PC/PCLAN/Mac/… for the last 35 years (VT100 console, IBM XT compatible, Apple I, Sun, Apollo, Novell, Next…). I feel (just me) that it’s always the critical applications that’s driving the choice of the platform for enterprises, and personal preference that’s driving the choice for Individual users.
I used to hate Mac for it’s being so “confusing” to use when I was spending most of my life at office using windows, then I hate Windows 2000 for being so “ugly” when I began to spend more and more time at home and using OSX. For the last 10 years (or 8?), I run parallel desktop on iMac for running models on Excel and Bloomberg. In the last few years, I begin to feel that the choice of platform is less important (for Individual user as myself) due to the increasing stability of Windows and functional equivalent of apps ( e.g. Excel for Mac is much more capable and similar to it’s Window peer now) on Win10/MacOS and almost totally compatibility of web-based access (data or app).
My experience is that the hardware of Mac is still reliable “enough” for me but I lack the benchmark with PC. My main concern is macOS, with iOS being the major cash and growth engine of Apple, it seems the company is more eager to pull general users into iOS and spread their talents too thin into refining macOS. Honesty, I feel that there are less and less surprises (big or small) for each year’s OS update. Obviously, I will remain as Mac users as I won’t dare to replace the computers/devices for the whole family!
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To me, all opinions have some right and wrong reasoning, good and bad idea
Except for mine. Mine are always right and good. 
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That 95% of users use Windows is one of the main reason I switched to Mac as a matter of fact. To avoid viruses at the time. I was really sorry I couldn’t introduce that at my wife’s company: it would have put us ahead of another game… I am of the view that the 5% is part of what makes me like Mac. Yeah I am an elitist and like not to be with the hoi poloi, only kiddin’. However, paradoxically I do think it is reason to switch to Mac and one I share with folk. Though if I had too much success I would saw off the branch I sit on.
I will never forget the sneering comment from a biologist friend of mine at a major lab years ago when I suggested Macs. “I am a scientist not an artist…” not sure quite what the sneer was but I got the gist. None of us back then even thought that nearly all cable capacity would be spent on video games and streaming HD Maury Povich repeats and third rate comedies and repeats of 60s tv…
At my fingertips, and I think the point is general, I would prefer as much Apple software and hardware as possible.
I’m just thinking about you while I was writing! 
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I have some concerns for the future, mainly since the butterfly key fiasco. That is what I think it was. Overreach in pursuit of lightness and thiness that was unecessary.
There are limits really to what one needs. For example a paperback book by 1990 was about optimal for what it is: by then the deterioration of glues for the spines had been solved, they seem never to break anymore. They are fine now and paper backs are preferred quite often by me to ebooks and so on. Most of what I read journal wise is, of necessity, online of course. I think Macs are getting close to that for me. Well they are there already. I have no real hardware or software bottlenecks any more. Partly due to DEVONthink 3 , Keyboard Maestro and Apple gear. I have bottlenecks on the web, clogged up with ads that much of it is to start with. Access and the usual pre IT stuff even remains in many places.
No they are not. Mine are LOL
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I am stating a fact
You are giving an opinion
He/She is blowing smoke