posted
So after my virus ordeal a few weeks ago, I decided it was time to upgrade my home office. I decided on a MacBook Pro, which also meant upgrading my Creative Suite cross-platform.
I have a friend in Grand Rapids, so I went up there to visit him Friday and went to the Apple Store in Woodland. What an awesome buying experience! I can't say enough about how cool it was to speak to someone face to face who was excited about the products he was helping me decide on. He answered all my dumb questions and he honestly didn't care what I bought. I walked out with a 17" MBP with the matte screen option.
I'm also going to take a minute to contrast this with my experience upgrading with Adobe. It started out very nice. The woman I spoke to in sales took her time with me, helped me find good pricing on my upgrade, and was all around kind and professional. That's where the fun ended. Three weeks, three customer service numbers and two calls to the customer service department later, I finally got my software. Adobe's customer service blows. If anyone's interested, I'll go into details. But suffice it to say, it takes alot for me to start asking for freebies, but this got so bad that I did. I couldn't believe the incompetence. After my first call asking when the product would be released for shipping, I was assured it would be done that day. Two days later, I checked the site and found that my order had actually been canceled. And this was after two weeks of waiting for something to happen.
Anyway... my new MBP is all set up and filled with happy software. I'm currently shopping for peripherals. Having trouble getting onto my home wireless network, so a call to AT&T will happen tomorrow.
posted
As I'll soon be going off to college, and will be in need of a laptop, I'm actually considering a Mac. My only hangups are how pricey they are, and the fact that I've never really used one, so adjusting to a different UI will take time that I really won't have.
Would you recommend seriously looking into a Mac for this? I don't want to get a PC only to have to have it implode on me by my sophomore year.
-------------------- "Kosh, I'd like to introduce you to our Resident schmuck and his side kick Kick Me."-Ritten
"Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity". -George Carlin
Registered: Jul 2007
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posted
I was a PC guy and had to learn how to use a Mac in about 2 days when I changed jobs. There wasn't that much to learn. And if you go to a Mac Store to buy it, the personal shopper will show you how to use it right there. But yah... the lowest priced laptop they have on their site is $999.
My mom just got a new PC laptop and I helped her set it up. It was awful. It tried to sell her a dozen services before she could even get on-line. Between that and the constant fear of downloading an STD, I'll never buy a PC again.
posted
New PCs and laptops are now being packed with bloatware and ads by the makers, it's getting out of hand. Even Microsoft are starting to cotton on to the fact that their efforts to make the user experience of PCs better is being hampered by all their third party partner types abusing the users. It's one of the few valid reasons Apple have for being such Nazi's about their stuff.
Every time I set up a new laptop that someone has bought from a shop I have to spend the first half hour rooting out all the nag screens and software trial offers which are designed to pop up at regular intervals. It's no better than malware. I cant believe a non PC literate user would put up with it for long before getting sick of that company and their tactics.
-------------------- www.kennyscrap.com - where I download crap I make.
Registered: Jun 2003
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-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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quote:You know, its really actually not that hard to use a PC and not get infected with anything. Really.
That's because you, me, and everyone else on this board knows what they're doing when it comes to computers. But for every one guy who know's what he's doing, there's a million people who don't.
I'm not an IT guy. I never took a computer class in my life. Everything I know about computers was self-taught. And I'm sure everyone here knows more than I do. But I do know the importance of virus and malware protection for PCs. So I have this neighbor who does maintenace for me (i.e. installing a new garbage disposal, putting in a new HVAC system, etc.), but knows jack shit about computers, so I help him with his. A few weeks ago his PC got infected with one of those really nasty malware programs that mimic a fake antivirus program (it even had a fake blue screen of death!). I asked him when the last time was that he had run his antivirus and antispyware programs. He looked at me with a completely blank expression on his face and asked me what those were.
This is a prime example of the average PC user.
Registered: Jun 2000
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