Feelings of Apple Disillusionment

Since getting my Macbook Pro and visiting this site, I'm having some serious feelings of buyers remorse.

All the hype I always heard from Apple fans about how great Macs are; the software is the best, the systems work perfect out of the box, and the software/OS doesn't have problems or need patches or "updates".

These are the things Mac fans always harp on when they talk bad about Windows PCs. I personally rarely had any problems with Windows PCs, but decided to make the change for several reasons. After getting my MBP and checkin out this forum, I'm seeing all kinds of messages about OS problems, hardware problems such as isight and disk drive not functioning properly, and Apple sending out "updates" which I consider patches to take care of these problems!!

What's the deal?? I swaer, from all the hype I heard about Apple being so great, I half-expected my MBP to be glowing when I pulled it out of the box, but instead find out about all these issues that never seems to be mentioned in Windows vs. Apple discussions.

Any other new users feeling this way??

thats because this is a forum. more people post problems than great experiences.

Apple's patchs only happen after the release of something new or every 1-2 months not once a week with windows.

Hardware is Hardware, there will be some problems. However I would bet that mac users experience less hardware problems than pc users because with mac there is only one company deciding what goes in these computers resulting in less compatibility issues and apple generally uses higher quality components than the pc giants (dell, hp)

Just go to a major pc forum and tell me what kind of problems you read about there.

Nothing is perfect, Apple is close though

No, seriously, Apple makes a great product. Everyones experience is different and people may have no issues at all with a windows PC but then have problems with a Mac, or vice versa. What sets the Mac apart from a windows PC is that (for the most part) all the software works seamlessly with OS X. You may have problems along the way with certain pieces of software but like mr g5 said, most people on a forum talk about whats not working rather than what is. And it may seem like a lot of stuff but we only have a small percentage of worldwide Mac users here.

I personally came from a strong windows background (i'm a network admin) and got tired of having 10 programs for my digital video and pictures. All i use now is iMove, iDVD and iPhoto. All of them work so well together. Give the Mac a chance. And don't think about problems people are having or you will get sucked into it as well (newtons law). I threw away everything i knew about windows and started fresh with OS X. It took me only a couple weeks to learn the basics of this great OS and i learn something new all the time.

mr g5 said:

thats because this is a forum. more people post problems than great experiences.

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This is very true. In general, come to this forum for tech support. And threads usually only start when people have a question. I've found the site indispensible for tech support since I switched on 10/31 (and I'm not just saying that because I help manage this site--LOL). Of course, people are chatting about tech support issues on the Windows forums out there too. Truth is, computers are more complex and cranky than ever (no matter what the OS is), and need good care and feeding.

I wonder how we can get more folks posting pre-emptively about their good experiences and help people find good information--before they come to the forum desperate for help and support?

= )

--C. A.

I also feel that the older ppc computers are of better quality then the newer intel ones. They are still new and are still working out their problems, although feel that sooner or later apple will be back to their old ways of putting out an amazing product.

My 17" intel iMac is the first mac I've ever owned. And so far I have had absolutely no problems. And it is far better then my PC. :black:

I've had a few frustrations (which were expected) with my new MacBook Pro, but all in all, I'm really happy so far. Once I get the email thing handled, I'll be super happy...

Now, whoever was talking to you was a bit of a troll.

Hardware is hardware, and it might break. In a place like these, you're hardly going to find someone post a message saying "My disk is workiing fine. How's yours?".

Your bound to read about problems. Even OSX isn't perfect, if it were, Apple could stop development today.

Apple computers have generally yielded good experiences with it's users, generally. GENERALLY. Exceptions exist, and everyone is free to chose the computer they like the best.
I for one, celebrated my 1-year being a mac-person yesterday (on my birthday) and never had a single issue. Touch wood.

PowerBookG4 said:

I also feel that the older ppc computers are of better quality then the newer intel ones. They are still new and are still working out their problems, although feel that sooner or later apple will be back to their old ways of putting out an amazing product.

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I agree 100% with this. Intel Mac technology, which also has to take in the Universal software developers too, is still in cutting edge mode and I feel these days it's the consumer who unwittingly does most of the bug testing. More than ever it's so importanct to do your research and to seek a particular computer/OS that will work for you, no matter how outdated it is and not believing the hype about having to keep up with the bleeding edge fraternity.

It's perfectly fine to be disillusioned with Apple and quite realistic to expect that somewhere within all those products that come out en masse, that there will be defective units. This goes for most mass produced products anyway. The great thing is that Apple will replace any defective unit but they are also probably struggling a bit due to the rapid increase in their share of the market and may have been caught with their pants down in some areas.

In a forum you get the occasional «Yay! I'm so happy with my Mac! Thank you Apple!» but forums are mainly online to help people if they have problems, hence the ratio is pretty lopsided in favour of Mac problems. I've got a last gen iMac G5 and I haven't had any problems after one year of intensive use. And besides how many people post ina forum if they have no problems at all, unless it's to try to help others, natch!

You would see the same in a Windoze forum. Is Windoze bad as some say in here? I don't know never extensively used a Windoze box and hopefully never will but the only few times I looked at a Wintel screen I didn't understand the logic behind the OS and never got into its GUI groove. But I sure wouldn't trust or be too thrilled to be using an OS that has security flaws that it has. All my banking info, email addies, etc. And I wouldn't appreciate owning and using a computer that could a zombie that sends out spam while I'm unaware of it.

As for patches, you have them in any software: freeware, shareware, OSes. And these patches are for improvements and bug fixes. Firefox has 'em, Adobe Photoshop has 'em, forum software has 'em, it's a fact of life. Software, be it an operating system or an application, needs to be ironed out and improved with added features. The Mac OS is no different.

It's ok if you are having second thoughts. If you intend on acting on them and getting rid of your MacBook Pro, I'm sure someone would be interested in buying it off of you. :girl:

Windows can be very good, but it's riddled with security problems and visual naffness because XP was being developed from 1999-2001. It's well out of date, which is why Vista has a lot to do.

Patches for Windows involve a monthly 'malicious software removal tool' and tens of security updates as Microsoft try to plug the holes in their colander like operating system.

I guess I'm from the old school, I think the biggest mistake Apple has made was using the new Intel processor. They give you updates to try to fix the issue, even come out with programs to keep your fans working all the time. To me this isn't fixing the problem and they won't fix the problem as long as people keep buying . I have an older PB 1.50 GHz & a 1.67 GHz still not opened. I would even consider buying a new one until the problems are fixed. My buddy just bought a new 2 core Duo Toshiba, same heat problem, I think 167 f is hot. They told him NOT to leave his on 24/7 like most Mac users here do. They must have their reasons.

What problems with heat? I thought the Core Duos ran at a much lower temperature than the G4/G5?

jram said:

I guess I'm from the old school, I think the biggest mistake Apple has made was using the new Intel processor.

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I'm having difficulty seeing this point of view... how's it a mistake for a company to now have a rapid gain on market share, sales going through the roof, many satisfied customers and only a few with issues?

I think they've done a remarkable job over the past 18 months, when the first Intel iMacs came out I was curious as to how they could remain sufficiently different from Windoze PCs but they slowly worked their way under my skin and, partly due to the knowledge I'd still have a Windows safety net, I switched from 20 years in PC land to a wonderful iMac coreduo a few months ago. And I've hardly ever fired up Parallels... it was just the warm-fuzzy feeling that I could return to my old world if I wanted to.

I've had no major issues and am more than happy with my purchase, I think there's many many more people like me out there, as has been stated already, forums are always full of people with problems and offer a skewed view of reality.

Sure there's a few issues, but I have read of people here with serious heating issues going back to Apple and having the notebook replaced and the problem disappearing so it does appear there are some hardware glitches, but they don't appear to be design related, they sound more like manufacturing defects.

jram said:

I guess I'm from the old school, I think the biggest mistake Apple has made was using the new Intel processor.

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I disagree. I think Apple making the switch to Intel was a major step forward. I think IBM wasn't doing enough research to better develop the PPC chip. I'm not saying the PPC chip was horrible, in fact it was/is a great chip (I think the Wii is using it now) but when you have to engineer a workstation with a few fans and a watercooled system to keep the heat manageable something isn't right. Look at all the space thats available with the Mac Pro by switching to Intel. I think IBM is doing more R&D for their server and laptops lines and stopped focusing on the PPC chip. Intel focuses on creating quality processors.

Apple basically put in a totally different engine in their product and I think, for the most part, its gone very smoothly. You have to expect problems and when they come up i think Apple has done a good job. Some software is slow to come out with a universal version but companies have been pretty good at changing the code.

Let's see Windows switch to a PPC chip. Since over 90% of the world uses Windows i think the world would come to an end.

I use Windows XP, I find it is quite stable and almost never crashes, but the virus threats and spywayre threats have me thinking about moving to a Mac. And I think the i programs work far better than what windows have.

I think many Mac users overbuild the Mac, becuase they think Windows is still like Win 95 or the like. Still, I think there is a major advantage with the Mac in terms of ease of use programs, from what I have seen, etc.

Windows XP is quite nice to use - I use a Mac in the day and PC at home (Macs aren't the best for games!). Some parts are very clunky and old fashioned though - there are still Win 95 icons in there if you look enough. Aesthetically it's years behind the times, which Vista tries to fix.

fleurya said:

What's the deal?? I swear, from all the hype I heard about Apple being so great, I half-expected my MBP to be glowing when I pulled it out of the box, ...

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It does glow, you forgot to drink the kool-aid and put on the glasses.

I never owned a ppc mac, even though when i joined this forums i was about to buy one. nevertheless the ppc's seemed much more reliable and when the g5 was released intel was switching from pentium 3 to pentium 4. Thats shows how state of the art that chip was. If IBM continued R&D with the ppc line we would all be using g6's.

another observation is most problems I read about all have to do with the mac notebooks. I rarly ever read problems about the mini, imac or mac pro.

fleurya said:

What's the deal?? I swaer, from all the hype I heard about Apple being so great, I half-expected my MBP to be glowing when I pulled it out of the box, but instead find out about all these issues that never seems to be mentioned in Windows vs. Apple discussions.

Any other new users feeling this way??

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Anything wrong with your Mac?