Re: "Why should I never buy a Mac?"
dude WTF
If you include an OS, monitor, and disk drive, the price is no longer half of the iMac. A monitor equivalent to the 27" iMac's monitor will often times cost more than $250-300. And even then, it's still not an all-in-one unit with support. Why do I say the OS is a must? Because you're comparing it to a system that provides an OS and is one of the primary reasons you'd buy such a product. If you're looking to custom build, you don't want to purchase an OS, and you don't want an all-in-one unit, then the Mac is not for you. But for those who do want these things, a manufactured all-in-one is a far better option.
It is not a valid comparison because it matters who is buying the product. The average consumer is not going to want to do all of these things, and for many it is not worth the hassle. If you say everybody should build their own, then by that token you should become a master carpenter and build your own house, a master shoemaker and make your own shoes, and a master mechanic to make your own car. You CHOOSE to build the system because hardware interests you. Not everybody wants to go knee-deep into spending hours and hours researching and making costly mistakes when they can just plunk down some cash and get what they want. Many of us actually have jobs or payments to make or kids to feed. That means that not all of us can spend all of our time on a whim designing something that is not a necessity. This is precisely why there are experts who build the hardware for the dummies.
Should people be more computer literate? Definitely. Computers are becoming more and more prevalent and crucial to the inner workings of our society, and the backbones of our infrastructures. Soon changing a computer part will be like changing a tire on a car is today. But once again, there is a difference between changing my tires/oil and buying a chassis and filling it out with parts. This takes time, energy, concentration, and skill. Quite frankly, not everybody is going to be an expert. So for those, the most important thing aside from cost/product is ease of use. When I got my MacBook Air, it came in a shiny, pretty package. I opened it, and everything was arranged neatly. A few crisp booklets with easy-to-read instructions, and a couple of neatly packaged cables. I plugged it in, and it worked like magic. That is the experience that matters the most.
I remember two years ago when I spent $3500 on parts to build a hardcore gaming and music production system. I ordered from Newegg and got the parts. I set it up, and it failed to boot. I contacted EVGA and spent hours and hours trying to figure out the problem (and I'm an experienced builder). I tried everything. Diagnostics of every kind. Every time I called a support line, some Indian guy responded and then asked me a few stupid questions before telling me to RMA ****ing everything. And my music production classes were starting in a week. They finally released a BIOS update, and with a successful flash I was able to boot properly and configure everything. But then a windows update screwed everything up for me. Had to rebuild the registry and then spend a ridiculous amount of time (3+ hours) on the phone with Microsoft to deal with their back-end **** (which it turns out I knew more than they did anyways), and of course they were unintelligible most of the time as well. Then after I got everything working, my RME FireFace 800 kept stuttering on my audio, and this was some of the most powerful hardware available. Finally, I switched mobo's (still didn't work), switched to 32mb cache hdd (those were a bit new back then), and upgraded to Vista, which had better MME/ASIO drives than XP. Then it FINALLY worked.
Keep in mind that this entire experience was one where I'd checked compatibility for everything, went through every step possible, and knew what I was doing. Can you imagine such a thing for a newbie? When you buy OEM, you are on your own. This can be a nightmare from time to time. For me, it is worth the risk because I have the technical skill and training, and the freedoms custom building brings me are quite important to me. For somebody who just wants to surf the web and watch movies, play music, and look at pictures of their kids, all that matters is a solid product that is easy to use. The iMac definitely fulfills those requirements, and if you have a problem with OSX or the pricing, Sony has an all-in-one Vaio that is far cheaper and has many of the same design traits and comes with XP and a host of Sony's products that work well with the Vaio. The other manufacturers also have all-in-one units, but I don't recommend them.
/AUGH
It is not a valid comparison because it matters who is buying the product. The average consumer is not going to want to do all of these things, and for many it is not worth the hassle. If you say everybody should build their own, then by that token you should become a master carpenter and build your own house, a master shoemaker and make your own shoes, and a master mechanic to make your own car. You CHOOSE to build the system because hardware interests you. Not everybody wants to go knee-deep into spending hours and hours researching and making costly mistakes when they can just plunk down some cash and get what they want. Many of us actually have jobs or payments to make or kids to feed. That means that not all of us can spend all of our time on a whim designing something that is not a necessity. This is precisely why there are experts who build the hardware for the dummies.
Should people be more computer literate? Definitely. Computers are becoming more and more prevalent and crucial to the inner workings of our society, and the backbones of our infrastructures. Soon changing a computer part will be like changing a tire on a car is today. But once again, there is a difference between changing my tires/oil and buying a chassis and filling it out with parts. This takes time, energy, concentration, and skill. Quite frankly, not everybody is going to be an expert. So for those, the most important thing aside from cost/product is ease of use. When I got my MacBook Air, it came in a shiny, pretty package. I opened it, and everything was arranged neatly. A few crisp booklets with easy-to-read instructions, and a couple of neatly packaged cables. I plugged it in, and it worked like magic. That is the experience that matters the most.
I remember two years ago when I spent $3500 on parts to build a hardcore gaming and music production system. I ordered from Newegg and got the parts. I set it up, and it failed to boot. I contacted EVGA and spent hours and hours trying to figure out the problem (and I'm an experienced builder). I tried everything. Diagnostics of every kind. Every time I called a support line, some Indian guy responded and then asked me a few stupid questions before telling me to RMA ****ing everything. And my music production classes were starting in a week. They finally released a BIOS update, and with a successful flash I was able to boot properly and configure everything. But then a windows update screwed everything up for me. Had to rebuild the registry and then spend a ridiculous amount of time (3+ hours) on the phone with Microsoft to deal with their back-end **** (which it turns out I knew more than they did anyways), and of course they were unintelligible most of the time as well. Then after I got everything working, my RME FireFace 800 kept stuttering on my audio, and this was some of the most powerful hardware available. Finally, I switched mobo's (still didn't work), switched to 32mb cache hdd (those were a bit new back then), and upgraded to Vista, which had better MME/ASIO drives than XP. Then it FINALLY worked.
Keep in mind that this entire experience was one where I'd checked compatibility for everything, went through every step possible, and knew what I was doing. Can you imagine such a thing for a newbie? When you buy OEM, you are on your own. This can be a nightmare from time to time. For me, it is worth the risk because I have the technical skill and training, and the freedoms custom building brings me are quite important to me. For somebody who just wants to surf the web and watch movies, play music, and look at pictures of their kids, all that matters is a solid product that is easy to use. The iMac definitely fulfills those requirements, and if you have a problem with OSX or the pricing, Sony has an all-in-one Vaio that is far cheaper and has many of the same design traits and comes with XP and a host of Sony's products that work well with the Vaio. The other manufacturers also have all-in-one units, but I don't recommend them.
/AUGH
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