A bit of a non-issue for me, ^^^ Mostly out of habit, if I can't fix it myself, then perhaps I asked for the problem.
It's not just Apple Care that I'll pay for. As I said earlier when I bought the HP Pavilion from Best Buy I bought Best Buy's extended plan. When I bought the Gateway laptop I got Gateway's extended plan. I'd love to be able to fix stuff myself but as my brother-in-law jokes, or used to joke, all I have to do is look at something and it stops working. Whether it's bad luck, coincidence, or what I don't know but since I had an accident I've had problems with hardware.
Your lucky! My girlfriends MacBook Pro died awhile back (it was our fault, heffeweizen spills are not under the warrenty), and we had to wait 6 days to get an appointment.
I've been to three Apple stores in my area, there are 4 that I know of but I don't know where the fourth is. When I have a problem I'll put my Mac in my car then drive to one of the 3. The other two are about equidistant to the one I go to though in different directions. There I'll check when their earliest appointment availability is. If they don't have one that day I'll check the availability at the other stores. I have had to wait once though. When I went to one appointment the tech, Genius, said the graphics had to be repaired. After looking he said they were out of the part and had to order it. So I took the Mac home and backed the previous day's files, I keep an on going backup, and waited for him to call saying he got the part. That took 4 days, on the fifth day I went back and dropped off my Mac. Unfortunately they had a backlog of repairs so it took them a few days to repair mine.
And that's not even all of it. There was a plan a few years ago (when I stopped reporting on these things - no idea what the status of it is now) to bring some HVDC lines down from Alberta into the US down through MT, WY, etc, into California, connecting wind and other power plants on the way. Then California enacted a ban on importation of fossil-fuel generated power, and that plan went by the wayside. The people wanting to make the HVDC line didn't think the project would suceed with _just_ connecting new (unbuilt) wind farms to the grid.
I did address that, politics, in one of my posts you replied to.
There is cheap and there is relatively cheap. Neither of those implies easy, btw.
I agree, but as I also said before technically it is easy, the hard part is politics.
Not higher than building new reactors, but higher than are usually understood, since it's not the total picture, and higher than people attempting to do a direct comparison to what is actually building new reactors
You're right. You yourself said "ots of opposition from the locals who don't want large turbines 'spoiling' (personal opinion) their view, or making noise 24/7... Then when you also add in heavy transmission line costs, you also get to deal with rights of way and environmental impact studies for that entire transmission line route, etc, etc." You talk about cost related to wind but not nuclear. For instance you say how people don't want turbines in view but you don't say people don't want nuclear power plants near them either. You also talk about how people don't like the noise from them, without acknowledging modern turbines are quiet. Then again you talk about how impact studies for transmission line routes have to be done without saying they also need to be done with nuclear, and every other large scale power source.
You keep attributing cost to wind without acknowledging those same costs exist for other power sources. When I pointed that out previously you shrugged it off.
Also, scaling up a wind farm to the same power output as even one nuclear reactor in the 1000MW range is going to be interesting
How many years does it take to build a nuclear reactor? Years and years. Even in Finland it takes years. Finland's Olkiluoto 3 the third reactor at Olkiluoto, being built by the French government owned Areva, has experienced cost overruns and construction delays. Olkiluoto 3 is already 3 year behind and "about $2.4bn dollars (1.7bn euros) over budget". They still don't know when it will start operations, the easiest expected is 2012.
Oh, and neither Finland nor France has the US's regulations. So compound their problems with those from building in the US.
Like the wind power industry isn't? Dude, you need to do some reading!
Sorry I already have. Not one energy source does not get subsidies. However all alternative energy sources only get a fraction of the subsidies coal, natural gas, nuclear, and petroleum get individually. Alternative energies all together only get a couple of hundred million dollars. Individually the others get more than a billion each. Here's a video of Rep Edward Markey enumerating what subsidies different industries get. He starts with saying over the years the nuclear industry has gotten $125 Billion. Altogether all the potential alternative energy sources, be it biofuel and biomass, geotherm
It's disingenuous to just pick and choose to make your side look favorable, but the fact is I can find similarly spec-ed PCs for a LOT less than Macs.
Which is exactly what you were doing when saying Mac were more expensive. You implied, no said straight out, that Macs were more expensive then when I point out Windows PCs that are more expensive you get defensive.
And what I did was not disingenuous, I did what I did when I wanted to get a new laptop. I evaluated what I wanted to do, made a list of software and hardware requirements, then configured different laptops that ran the software I wanted and had the hardware I wanted.
I'm familiar with "Moonraker", it's just that the weapon in "Die Another Day" is remarkably similar to the aforementioned solar power plant.:)
Yea, if I recall right the satellite in "Die Another Day" was even supposed to be an energy plant. My comment about "Moonraker" was to point out there was a Bond space movie before "Die Another Day". There was actually two, "Diamonds Are Forever", made in 1971, was about a "SPECTRE plot to build a satellite with laser beams capable of destroying weapons on the ground."
BTW, did you see "Casino Royale"? If so what did you think of it and Daniel Craig? Though I liked Pierce Brosnan I saw the remake of it, the original "Casino Royale" was a 007 spoof made in 1967, and thought it was good. It took me back to "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" where he was just getting his license to kill and there wasn't a lot of high tech gadgets.
Oh, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was the only Bond movie where Bond was married. He got married at the end of the movie and as he was driving away from the reception his bride was shot and killed.
I did. The difference between the M17x and the 17" MacBook Pro was $75. However it comes with Windows. I switched from Windows because I was sick and tired of my PCs crashing and needing to reinstall Windows. I was not going to spend $3000 only to find out I made another mistake buying Windows again.
Even if you're buying the LCD yourself and including it in the cost of the laptop, the total price will come to around $2500. $500 *less* than the number you're asking for.
BS! It was less than $100. No where near your $500.
Also, you won't find a laptop that runs at 1900x1200 internal resolution,
Okay 1920 not 1900, that's better, look at the MacBook Pro specs. "Supported resolutions: 1920 by 1200 (native)". Even the Alienware offers that, "17-inch WideUXGA 1920x1200 (1200p)". Cut and paste.
And while I realize that it's not running Linux out of the box, you'll find that it's not difficult to reinstall Linux on that system if you like.
But I have to pay the Microsoft tax. Sure I could demand a refund from Alienware, but what's the likelihood I would get it, in a reasonable tyme period? And how much would it be? Probably less than $100 which is less than the upgrade price of Windows 7. And if I installed Ubuntu could I install Photoshop CS4? I plan on installing Ubuntu Studio on my Mac, to tryout CinePaint. But if it does not work out for me I'll want Photoshop. I can install it in Snow Leopard but I don't think I can in Ubuntu. Maybe in another year but not now.
But, I noticed that you have not said why it can not work, other than to say that it can not. Exactly what do you base that on?
I did in fact say why it would not work. I even provided links to Hurricane Andrew and mentioned what it did to Homestead, FL. I have repeatedly said hurricanes could destroy power plants.
a set of portable smallish receivers brought in AFTER the hurricane and hooked into the transmissions lines in various places MIGHT work.
They might, but then again how big would these receivers have to be to be usable? And who would possess them? Surely you mustn't mean FEMA, look at their response to Hurricane Katrina. Now, I'm not placing all the blame for those stuck in the Superdome on FEMA or Fatherland, er Motherland, er Homeland Security. I also blame those who demanded they be created and they do something. But that's getting into another area so I'll leave it at that.
From all I heard the Snow Leopard disk is a full install of OS X, and not an upgrade.
A number of other slashdotters posted the same thing, with some say simply that Apple will not support it. If so though I still think it would be worth it to buy the Mac Box Set for $170 than invalidate the year I have left of Apple care.
Actually one of the things I like about Apple is that if I have a problem with my Mac I may have to wait 12 hours or so but I can put the Mac in my car and drive to one of 3 Apple stores where I can make an appointment with a Genius to have my problems diagnosed and possibly fixed then and there. I tried the same thing when I bought my HP Pavilion from Best Buy. I bought Best Buy's extended service plan as well, I don't mind paying a little extra for peace of mind when I can afford it, for the same reason. However when I used it turnaround was slower than it is at Apple.
actually isn't this release killing Rosetta support?
I don't know, however that doesn't mean it's a must have upgrade. If anything it argues the opposite, if you upgrade you lose Rosetta. Personally I switched after Apple switched so it doesn't matter to me, I just made sure that either there was a universal or an Intel binary.
There are costs to upgrading transmission lines, but they're nowhere _near_ the costs of running lines where there weren't any before.
The only differences are erection of towers and granting of easements or rights of way. In places where cables already exist the cables need to be replaced with higher capacity cables. And of course where there is no capacity everything has to be put in place, however with current problems costing $80 Billion plus annually, those costs are cheap.
My problem was that you kept implying wind as costs that are a lot higher than building new reactors. And I didn't even address the fact that nuclear power would not be profitable without subsidies, the nuclear industry is Hooked on Subsidies. Notice that that link is not something environmental but points to a reprint of a business magazine article on a free markets think-tank website. Especially notice where it says "How do France (and India, China and Russia) build cost-effective nuclear power plants? They don't. Governmental officials in those countries, not private investors, decide what is built. Nuclear power appeals to state planners, not market actors."
Windows has major jumps (with corresponding price) occasionally, but has many intermediate increases offered for free. OS X OTOH has had more regular updates, that cost money
I upgraded from 10.5.0 to 10.5.1 to... to 10.5.8 without paying a dime for the upgrades. All I paid for was my net access however I could, and have, run update using WiFi in an Apple store for free.
Negative points to you all for not noticing that this is equivlent to charging $30 for a service pack.
Snow Leopard is only a service in the sense that Windows 2000 was a service pack for NT4, XP was one for 2000, or Windows 7's one for Vista. In which case you're paying more for the Windows service pack than for OS X.
show me a new 15" Apple laptop computer that you can buy for under $500. Oh wait. You can't.
Can you show me a Windows laptop that has two video systems and can drive a 17" 1900x1200 LCD and a 24" external LCD at the same tyme for less than $3000? Oh, 4GB RAM, and a 500GB 7200 RPM hard drive are required too.
One last requirement, it has to last for more than a couple of years and not end up as a doorstop. There are added points for such a laptop that runs Linux and not MS spyware.
The Box Set that you refered to goes for $169. Not bad considering the apps it comes with and an office suite. Thats the one I plan to get along with a bigger HDD for my MacBook Pro. I think its a pretty good deal.:)
I use NeoOffice and see no need for iWorks. And I don't use iLife, in the 2 years I've had my Mac I haven't used it once. I may start using iCal though to set up "to do" lists. I don't think I'll need to upgrade to iLife 2009 for that though.
Now if I wanted iWorks and iLife then yes I'd say $170 was a good deal.
At an Apple store I asked if the $30 dollar was an upgrade or a full install disk. I was told it was a full install disk and no copy of leopard or even tiger was required.
Yesterday I asked the same at an Apple store as was told the install routine checks to see if Leopard is installed. I said I wanted to wipe my disk before installing Snow Leopard.
three of my friends have had their less-than-one-year-old macs have various parts fail. One of my friends had his Airport card bust on him, one of them had the motherboard inexplicably stop working, and another had his graphics card break.
I've suffered the same with my PCs. Three new PC had their motherboards and hard disk fail and need to be replaced within a year. I had to replace RAM in two of them as well. I also had to reinstall Windows on two of them a bunch of tymes.
Maybe avoiding Dell and similar manufacturers has given me a skewed perspective,
Maybe here as well, but the 2 PCs that gave me the most problems were from different manufacturers. One was a Gateway and the other an HP. What I found ironic was that I got the HP to replace the Gateway.
I've been using Photoshop CS2 on Leopard. My $29 upgrade will mean either no Photoshop or another few hundred bucks additional cost in order to get CS4.
CS2 was PPC only though. If you call Adobe maybe they'll reduce the price of CS4.
What I don't like about it it though CS4 for Windows was released as a 64 bit app it wasn't for OS X.
Still not sure what my hopes are for running Linux on an Intel Mac.
From what I've read Ubuntu runs pretty good on Macs. I have a MacBook Pro I've been researching how to install Ubuntu 9.04 on. To install Ubuntu or any other Linux distro you have to install Bootcamp and or rEFIt first. Here's more info on installing Ubuntu on MacTels.
I'm the opposite. I'm typing this on a MacBook Pro but I would never buy a MacBook or MacBook Air. I'd buy a Mac Pro but not a Mac Mini or iMac. I wouldn't buy an Apple TV, iPhone, or iPod either.
That is a big problem you get in to with Mac prices. In a very large segment of the market, they have no good offerings. You have to buy much higher end hardware which drives the price way up. You can argue all you like that it isn't "equal" it doesn't matter. If those extra features aren't needed or wanted, then all you are doing is driving the price up.
I agree and think that that where Jobs is screwing up.
Now if Apple does offer a system configuration you want their prices are comparable to Windows OEM prices.
>>>Don't upgrade if you don't think it's worth it!
You can't do that with Macs. They'll stop running the latest software. For example I wouldn't be able to run Firefox 3 or 3.5 on my G4 Mac's original OS (10.1). I had to upgrade.
You upgraded when you didn't have to. I'm typing this in a tab in Firefox 2.0.0.20. I have Firefox 3 installed but I don't use it because I don't want to.
Must be where you live, here in Canada I just compared to comparable laptops, one from Apple Canada, and one from Dell (Alienware).
So did I, though I used Alienware and Dell as well as an HP. The Alienware was less than $100 less, and had a slower CPU, but both the Dell and HP were more than $300 more with the same CPU.
Apple is a luxury brand like Lexus or Acura or Chrysler. If you want luxury, fine, but I just prefer to drive "ordinary" Hondas or Dodges instead, because they are cheaper to purchase and cheaper to maintain.
Slashdot Mirror
A bit of a non-issue for me, ^^^ Mostly out of habit, if I can't fix it myself, then perhaps I asked for the problem.
It's not just Apple Care that I'll pay for. As I said earlier when I bought the HP Pavilion from Best Buy I bought Best Buy's extended plan. When I bought the Gateway laptop I got Gateway's extended plan. I'd love to be able to fix stuff myself but as my brother-in-law jokes, or used to joke, all I have to do is look at something and it stops working. Whether it's bad luck, coincidence, or what I don't know but since I had an accident I've had problems with hardware.
Your lucky! My girlfriends MacBook Pro died awhile back (it was our fault, heffeweizen spills are not under the warrenty), and we had to wait 6 days to get an appointment.
I've been to three Apple stores in my area, there are 4 that I know of but I don't know where the fourth is. When I have a problem I'll put my Mac in my car then drive to one of the 3. The other two are about equidistant to the one I go to though in different directions. There I'll check when their earliest appointment availability is. If they don't have one that day I'll check the availability at the other stores. I have had to wait once though. When I went to one appointment the tech, Genius, said the graphics had to be repaired. After looking he said they were out of the part and had to order it. So I took the Mac home and backed the previous day's files, I keep an on going backup, and waited for him to call saying he got the part. That took 4 days, on the fifth day I went back and dropped off my Mac. Unfortunately they had a backlog of repairs so it took them a few days to repair mine.
Falcon
And that's not even all of it. There was a plan a few years ago (when I stopped reporting on these things - no idea what the status of it is now) to bring some HVDC lines down from Alberta into the US down through MT, WY, etc, into California, connecting wind and other power plants on the way. Then California enacted a ban on importation of fossil-fuel generated power, and that plan went by the wayside. The people wanting to make the HVDC line didn't think the project would suceed with _just_ connecting new (unbuilt) wind farms to the grid.
I did address that, politics, in one of my posts you replied to.
There is cheap and there is relatively cheap. Neither of those implies easy, btw.
I agree, but as I also said before technically it is easy, the hard part is politics.
Not higher than building new reactors, but higher than are usually understood, since it's not the total picture, and higher than people attempting to do a direct comparison to what is actually building new reactors
You're right. You yourself said "ots of opposition from the locals who don't want large turbines 'spoiling' (personal opinion) their view, or making noise 24/7... Then when you also add in heavy transmission line costs, you also get to deal with rights of way and environmental impact studies for that entire transmission line route, etc, etc." You talk about cost related to wind but not nuclear. For instance you say how people don't want turbines in view but you don't say people don't want nuclear power plants near them either. You also talk about how people don't like the noise from them, without acknowledging modern turbines are quiet. Then again you talk about how impact studies for transmission line routes have to be done without saying they also need to be done with nuclear, and every other large scale power source.
You keep attributing cost to wind without acknowledging those same costs exist for other power sources. When I pointed that out previously you shrugged it off.
Also, scaling up a wind farm to the same power output as even one nuclear reactor in the 1000MW range is going to be interesting
How many years does it take to build a nuclear reactor? Years and years. Even in Finland it takes years. Finland's Olkiluoto 3 the third reactor at Olkiluoto, being built by the French government owned Areva, has experienced cost overruns and construction delays. Olkiluoto 3 is already 3 year behind and "about $2.4bn dollars (1.7bn euros) over budget". They still don't know when it will start operations, the easiest expected is 2012.
Oh, and neither Finland nor France has the US's regulations. So compound their problems with those from building in the US.
Like the wind power industry isn't? Dude, you need to do some reading!
Sorry I already have. Not one energy source does not get subsidies. However all alternative energy sources only get a fraction of the subsidies coal, natural gas, nuclear, and petroleum get individually. Alternative energies all together only get a couple of hundred million dollars. Individually the others get more than a billion each. Here's a video of Rep Edward Markey enumerating what subsidies different industries get. He starts with saying over the years the nuclear industry has gotten $125 Billion. Altogether all the potential alternative energy sources, be it biofuel and biomass, geotherm
People talk about saving our world for the generations to come, well I had to live through the 80's and they didn't, so screw them!
Let me try that, I lived through the '80s so screw you all. Now I think I'll build a toxic waste dump next door to you.
Falcon
It's disingenuous to just pick and choose to make your side look favorable, but the fact is I can find similarly spec-ed PCs for a LOT less than Macs.
Which is exactly what you were doing when saying Mac were more expensive. You implied, no said straight out, that Macs were more expensive then when I point out Windows PCs that are more expensive you get defensive.
And what I did was not disingenuous, I did what I did when I wanted to get a new laptop. I evaluated what I wanted to do, made a list of software and hardware requirements, then configured different laptops that ran the software I wanted and had the hardware I wanted.
Falcon
I'm familiar with "Moonraker", it's just that the weapon in "Die Another Day" is remarkably similar to the aforementioned solar power plant. :)
Yea, if I recall right the satellite in "Die Another Day" was even supposed to be an energy plant. My comment about "Moonraker" was to point out there was a Bond space movie before "Die Another Day". There was actually two, "Diamonds Are Forever", made in 1971, was about a "SPECTRE plot to build a satellite with laser beams capable of destroying weapons on the ground."
BTW, did you see "Casino Royale"? If so what did you think of it and Daniel Craig? Though I liked Pierce Brosnan I saw the remake of it, the original "Casino Royale" was a 007 spoof made in 1967, and thought it was good. It took me back to "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" where he was just getting his license to kill and there wasn't a lot of high tech gadgets.
Oh, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was the only Bond movie where Bond was married. He got married at the end of the movie and as he was driving away from the reception his bride was shot and killed.
Falcon
Go to Dell.com and configure an Alienware M17x.
I did. The difference between the M17x and the 17" MacBook Pro was $75. However it comes with Windows. I switched from Windows because I was sick and tired of my PCs crashing and needing to reinstall Windows. I was not going to spend $3000 only to find out I made another mistake buying Windows again.
Even if you're buying the LCD yourself and including it in the cost of the laptop, the total price will come to around $2500. $500 *less* than the number you're asking for.
BS! It was less than $100. No where near your $500.
Also, you won't find a laptop that runs at 1900x1200 internal resolution,
Okay 1920 not 1900, that's better, look at the MacBook Pro specs. " Supported resolutions : 1920 by 1200 (native)". Even the Alienware offers that, "17-inch WideUXGA 1920x1200 (1200p)". Cut and paste.
And while I realize that it's not running Linux out of the box, you'll find that it's not difficult to reinstall Linux on that system if you like.
But I have to pay the Microsoft tax. Sure I could demand a refund from Alienware, but what's the likelihood I would get it, in a reasonable tyme period? And how much would it be? Probably less than $100 which is less than the upgrade price of Windows 7. And if I installed Ubuntu could I install Photoshop CS4? I plan on installing Ubuntu Studio on my Mac, to tryout CinePaint. But if it does not work out for me I'll want Photoshop. I can install it in Snow Leopard but I don't think I can in Ubuntu. Maybe in another year but not now.
Falcon
But, I noticed that you have not said why it can not work, other than to say that it can not. Exactly what do you base that on?
I did in fact say why it would not work. I even provided links to Hurricane Andrew and mentioned what it did to Homestead, FL. I have repeatedly said hurricanes could destroy power plants.
a set of portable smallish receivers brought in AFTER the hurricane and hooked into the transmissions lines in various places MIGHT work.
They might, but then again how big would these receivers have to be to be usable? And who would possess them? Surely you mustn't mean FEMA, look at their response to Hurricane Katrina. Now, I'm not placing all the blame for those stuck in the Superdome on FEMA or Fatherland, er Motherland, er Homeland Security. I also blame those who demanded they be created and they do something. But that's getting into another area so I'll leave it at that.
Falcon
From all I heard the Snow Leopard disk is a full install of OS X, and not an upgrade.
A number of other slashdotters posted the same thing, with some say simply that Apple will not support it. If so though I still think it would be worth it to buy the Mac Box Set for $170 than invalidate the year I have left of Apple care.
Actually one of the things I like about Apple is that if I have a problem with my Mac I may have to wait 12 hours or so but I can put the Mac in my car and drive to one of 3 Apple stores where I can make an appointment with a Genius to have my problems diagnosed and possibly fixed then and there. I tried the same thing when I bought my HP Pavilion from Best Buy. I bought Best Buy's extended service plan as well, I don't mind paying a little extra for peace of mind when I can afford it, for the same reason. However when I used it turnaround was slower than it is at Apple.
actually isn't this release killing Rosetta support?
I don't know, however that doesn't mean it's a must have upgrade. If anything it argues the opposite, if you upgrade you lose Rosetta. Personally I switched after Apple switched so it doesn't matter to me, I just made sure that either there was a universal or an Intel binary.
Falcon
There are costs to upgrading transmission lines, but they're nowhere _near_ the costs of running lines where there weren't any before.
The only differences are erection of towers and granting of easements or rights of way. In places where cables already exist the cables need to be replaced with higher capacity cables. And of course where there is no capacity everything has to be put in place, however with current problems costing $80 Billion plus annually, those costs are cheap.
My problem was that you kept implying wind as costs that are a lot higher than building new reactors. And I didn't even address the fact that nuclear power would not be profitable without subsidies, the nuclear industry is Hooked on Subsidies. Notice that that link is not something environmental but points to a reprint of a business magazine article on a free markets think-tank website. Especially notice where it says "How do France (and India, China and Russia) build cost-effective nuclear power plants? They don't. Governmental officials in those countries, not private investors, decide what is built. Nuclear power appeals to state planners, not market actors."
Falcon
Windows has major jumps (with corresponding price) occasionally, but has many intermediate increases offered for free. OS X OTOH has had more regular updates, that cost money
I upgraded from 10.5.0 to 10.5.1 to ... to 10.5.8 without paying a dime for the upgrades. All I paid for was my net access however I could, and have, run update using WiFi in an Apple store for free.
Falcon
Negative points to you all for not noticing that this is equivlent to charging $30 for a service pack.
Snow Leopard is only a service in the sense that Windows 2000 was a service pack for NT4, XP was one for 2000, or Windows 7's one for Vista. In which case you're paying more for the Windows service pack than for OS X.
Falcon
show me a new 15" Apple laptop computer that you can buy for under $500. Oh wait. You can't.
Can you show me a Windows laptop that has two video systems and can drive a 17" 1900x1200 LCD and a 24" external LCD at the same tyme for less than $3000? Oh, 4GB RAM, and a 500GB 7200 RPM hard drive are required too.
One last requirement, it has to last for more than a couple of years and not end up as a doorstop. There are added points for such a laptop that runs Linux and not MS spyware.
Falcon
Paying $2000 for an $800 computer and then getting the OS for $30 isn't a good deal.
Paying $2700 for a computer when the competition cost $3500 is good, with our without a $30 upgrade.
Falcon
The Box Set that you refered to goes for $169. Not bad considering the apps it comes with and an office suite. Thats the one I plan to get along with a bigger HDD for my MacBook Pro. I think its a pretty good deal. :)
I use NeoOffice and see no need for iWorks. And I don't use iLife, in the 2 years I've had my Mac I haven't used it once. I may start using iCal though to set up "to do" lists. I don't think I'll need to upgrade to iLife 2009 for that though.
Now if I wanted iWorks and iLife then yes I'd say $170 was a good deal.
Falcon
At an Apple store I asked if the $30 dollar was an upgrade or a full install disk. I was told it was a full install disk and no copy of leopard or even tiger was required.
Yesterday I asked the same at an Apple store as was told the install routine checks to see if Leopard is installed. I said I wanted to wipe my disk before installing Snow Leopard.
Falcon
three of my friends have had their less-than-one-year-old macs have various parts fail. One of my friends had his Airport card bust on him, one of them had the motherboard inexplicably stop working, and another had his graphics card break.
I've suffered the same with my PCs. Three new PC had their motherboards and hard disk fail and need to be replaced within a year. I had to replace RAM in two of them as well. I also had to reinstall Windows on two of them a bunch of tymes.
Maybe avoiding Dell and similar manufacturers has given me a skewed perspective,
Maybe here as well, but the 2 PCs that gave me the most problems were from different manufacturers. One was a Gateway and the other an HP. What I found ironic was that I got the HP to replace the Gateway.
Falcon
I've been using Photoshop CS2 on Leopard. My $29 upgrade will mean either no Photoshop or another few hundred bucks additional cost in order to get CS4.
CS2 was PPC only though. If you call Adobe maybe they'll reduce the price of CS4.
What I don't like about it it though CS4 for Windows was released as a 64 bit app it wasn't for OS X.
Falcon
Still not sure what my hopes are for running Linux on an Intel Mac.
From what I've read Ubuntu runs pretty good on Macs. I have a MacBook Pro I've been researching how to install Ubuntu 9.04 on. To install Ubuntu or any other Linux distro you have to install Bootcamp and or rEFIt first. Here's more info on installing Ubuntu on MacTels.
Falcon
Oops, those requirements are for Leopard not Snow Leopard.
Falcon
I'm the opposite. I'm typing this on a MacBook Pro but I would never buy a MacBook or MacBook Air. I'd buy a Mac Pro but not a Mac Mini or iMac. I wouldn't buy an Apple TV, iPhone, or iPod either.
Falcon
That is a big problem you get in to with Mac prices. In a very large segment of the market, they have no good offerings. You have to buy much higher end hardware which drives the price way up. You can argue all you like that it isn't "equal" it doesn't matter. If those extra features aren't needed or wanted, then all you are doing is driving the price up.
I agree and think that that where Jobs is screwing up.
Now if Apple does offer a system configuration you want their prices are comparable to Windows OEM prices.
Falcon
No they're not.
(or Euro or whatever)
Maybe in currency other than US dollars.
Falcon
>>>Don't upgrade if you don't think it's worth it!
You can't do that with Macs. They'll stop running the latest software. For example I wouldn't be able to run Firefox 3 or 3.5 on my G4 Mac's original OS (10.1). I had to upgrade.
You upgraded when you didn't have to. I'm typing this in a tab in Firefox 2.0.0.20. I have Firefox 3 installed but I don't use it because I don't want to.
Falcon
Must be where you live, here in Canada I just compared to comparable laptops, one from Apple Canada, and one from Dell (Alienware).
So did I, though I used Alienware and Dell as well as an HP. The Alienware was less than $100 less, and had a slower CPU, but both the Dell and HP were more than $300 more with the same CPU.
Falcon
Apple is a luxury brand like Lexus or Acura or Chrysler. If you want luxury, fine, but I just prefer to drive "ordinary" Hondas or Dodges instead, because they are cheaper to purchase and cheaper to maintain.
What rocks have you been hiding behind?
Falcon