Comments on: I Love My MacBook But $750 is $750

By: bux

bux — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:51:13 +0000

The specs for the cheap windows laptop may be more impressive on paper but I hear it takes every bit of that ram and HD space to operate Vista. In fact I hear that even with those specs Vista will bog down the PC. Don’t forget what you will spend on Anti Virus Apps, spyware programs etc… I love my Macbook and was worth every penny. Right now Macbook on bestbuy.com 849.00!!! Great Deal!!!

By: PJ

PJ — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 01:31:13 +0000

Just buy a used macbook.

I’ve bought two laptops from the MacNN forums and had pleasant experiences. The most recent was a 2ghz 2gig MacBook for $800 almost a year ago.

There’s always the fear you can get burned buying used equipment, but buying from well-known members can decrease the likelihood of that happening substantially.

I even got the original owner’s AppleCare transfered to my name, so even had there been issues, I could’ve had it repaired.

By: scott

scott — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:49:02 +0000

One word: Acer.

I would never buy an acer - any acer.
Even in an apples to apples comparison with other pc notebooks, acers are less expensive.

The simple answer is that they are cheaper. It has nothing to do with Windows and everything to do with manufacturing quality and overhead. Acers are the bargain basement of Windows laptops.

Compare with an HP, Lenovo, Compaq, Toshiba, Sony or even Dell laptop and you’ll get a better picture of the value difference.

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:05:58 +0000

According to this sort of theory, when comparing two cars, the cheaper one must be better, right? They’re both cars.

Forget that the more expensive one gets better mileage, has more standard equipment and a more comfortable ride. They’re both cars. You should always buy the cheaper one.

By: Bill Sagert

Bill Sagert — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 05:40:03 +0000

Kareem wrote:
…what’s the value you ascribe to enjoying using your laptop everyday? on not needing to reformat every 6-9 months? on being able to live life without viruses?

My two Toshiba laptops are over five years old. I have *never* done a reformat. I have *never had a virus*. Never a *blue screen of death* since xp sp2. No malware since sp3 and before that malware was easily taken care of by *system restore*.

You Apple guys blow smoke. I used to install adsl for a big Telco. I saw my share of Macs crashing. “I thought Macs never crashed” was my reaction. “Don’t believe it” was the answer from the Mac owners.

By: Eden Spodek

Eden Spodek — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 03:12:18 +0000

Also, students buying macs now can also get a free printer and an ipod. Seems like a pretty sweet deal to me if it’s within your budget.

By: Randall Howard

Randall Howard — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 22:15:39 +0000

Mark,
That’s exactly why the MSFT $300M ad campaign is so way off the mark. Apple is certainly stealing the high end and the buzz is around UMPCs (smaller Mobile Internet Devices) that cost $299-$400 and tend to run Ubuntu. Between those and the iPhone, it’s not clear that there’s a market position left for Microsoft to dominate.

Randall

By: gene

gene — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 19:00:46 +0000

here’s the repercussions:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=296760

http://lucasrockwell.blogspot.com/2008/09/debate-is-over.html

http://fishbowl.pastiche.org/2008/09/06/hi_im_a_mac_beep_beep/

linux laptop for software devs: I’d say that the leading distros (Ubuntu./debian, centOS/fedora) work great, now that the biggest speed bumps are more or less fixed (wifi, dual-head /monitors, apt-get’s breaking up ruby and python installs into lots of little packages, …)

By: Cleay

Cleay — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 09:17:53 +0000

“but clearly only a choice that 5-6% of the market is making”
According to this: http://www.macworld.com/article/59616/2007/08/appleshare.html it’s over 17% for all notebooks - and I read recently the market share of notebooks over $1000 is 80%. With numbers like that why would you go on sale?

By: someMerican

someMerican — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 03:46:20 +0000

FYI, a similar model Acer and Compaq notebook were available through Best Buy down here in the States and sold very briskly. They had 2GB of RAM compared to the one you mentioned for the same price (I’m unsure of the rest of the specs, HD size and DVD drive type e.g.) Thing is, a friend of mine went to pick one up and found out that the reason they’re priced so low is they’ve been outright discontinued by Acer and Compaq. The MacBook, as far as I know, is still the current model. Something to consider.