Do you consider apple products to be closed hardware/software?

I'll put my $0.02 in.

As far as building my own hardware, yep I miss that with the Macs, but not that much. I do wish Apple would license the OS to be put on 3rd party hardware like it was for a few years in the 1990s. We had several companies form in the Austin area that built killer Mac desktops until Jobs returned and did away with 3rd party licenses. But really even though I've built several desktops over the years for Windows machines, I don't care to do that any more for any OS. And what about laptops, tablets, and smartphones? No one seems to be building those themselves, and for a good reason!

I switched back to Mac OS for the first time since the mid-1990s because of two reasons: (1) Windows 8 is sucky and getting Windows 7 on a new computer is rather difficult. (2) I mostly use my computers for photography and artwork, and the Mac OS X is a much better platform for that purpose.

I went inexpensive by getting a Mac Mini, bought 16 GB of RAM from a 3rd party provider for 1/3 of what Apple charges, and like Jessica I used my old Logitech multi-button mouse (made for Windows) and a Samsung 23" monitor, both of which I already owned. All my old external harddrives I had for my Windows computers work fine with the Mac, and that is without reformatting them. They are interchangeable as-is between my Mac and my Win Laptop. So no walled garden around peripherals!

I tried a few Android tablets and a Motorola Atrix 4G android phone for 2 years. All of these were horrible because of Android. The hardware was great, but the software was sucky beyond compare. Most of the apps looked like they were written by elementary school children. I switched to the iPad and I'm very happy with performance and the apps. It simply works. I'll give up desktop customizations any day for a system that works well. I'm all about work and not play, so a custom desktop/launcher has no appeal to me. I like that Apple actually checks submitted apps to ensure they play nicely, unlike the apps that can wind up on Google Market.

As I said earlier I used an Android smartphone for two years, the Motorola Atrix 4G. Hated the stupid apps and Android. Also I hate that Android smartphones come with a zillion phone carrier apps that you cannot delete. Even worse I hate that any phone manufacturer can modify the Android that comes on their phones to give you an even suckier Android. Apple will not allow the iOS to be changed by any phone carrier, and thankfully so!!!! Any apps pre-installed by phone carriers can be completely deleted. I recently switched to an iPhone 5 and it is so wonderful to not have a smartphone that was reprogrammed by a phone carrier!!!!!!!

Walled garden? Maybe. But I'm at that age where I prefer to live in a neighborhood with walls and gates to keep the riff raff out. I'll take a peaceful walled garden any day over total chaos. I just want things to work without having to pop open the hood every few miles and spending countless hours fiddling with settings and fixing issues.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by David Munch

Other than that, I don't see any problems at all frankly - Only things people complain about, just to complain.

True. I don't like Macs or OS X but I can respect other people's choices. If an Apple product works best for them, then great. That said, I find people who evangelize about their chosen platform (be it OS X, Windows, iOS, Android, Linux) and continuously ram it down other people's throats annoying.

Originally Posted by jswinden

And what about laptops, tablets, and smartphones? No one seems to be building those themselves, and for a good reason!

Correction, there are people who build their own laptops. Not as much customization as desktops but it's possible to buy a barebones system and install your own CPU, RAM, SSD, etc.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by Jessica Lares

... it's a complete PITA.

No, it is not.

Originally Posted by afv011

No, it is not.

If she says it is PITA to her, then it is. It might not be a PITA to you, but you are not her and she was talking about herself. Therefore her statement is very valid.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Jessica Lares

If I were to build my own desktop, it would still be specifically for Mac OS X, so it's not really worthwhile. I get why people do it, but it's a complete PITA, and I'd rather pay the premium to NOT have to deal with it.

All my builds are actually more expensive than what I can get off the shelf. However, I don't like the limitations of OEM builds and I enjoy the process of researching parts and speccing out builds. The scratches and cable management I can do without but it's offset by the satisfaction of a job well done after I've finished building the PC.

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Correction, there are people who build their own laptops. Not as much customization as desktops but it's possible to buy a barebones system and install your own CPU, RAM, SSD, etc.

Except for the CPU you can do that on a Mac Mini too. But I don't really consider a so-called barebones laptop to be a true home built computer. The ones I've seen come with a motherboard, LCD, battery/power supply, etc. With a home built desktop you can choose all of those items for a true custom built system, whereas your choices are very limited with a barebones laptop.

The bad thing about barebones PCs is that if you screw it up who are you going to call? You are the CS rep, so get ready to call yourself and complain about the thing working wonky! Yep, no warranty either, except for individual parts. That might not matter to some, but it is certainly a consideration for many.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Except for the CPU you can do that on a Mac Mini too. But I don't really consider a so-called barebones laptop to be a true home built computer. The ones I've seen come with a motherboard, LCD, battery/power supply, etc. With a home built desktop you can choose all of those items for a true custom built system, whereas your choices are very limited with a barebones laptop.

There are quite a number of barebones laptop options ranging from basic to very high end with SLI/XFire and 4-way RAID (yeah, I can only imagine the weight on that one). It's true, though, that when you choose the barebones laptop, you're choosing chassis, battery/power supply, LCD, touchpad, keyboard, motherboard and GPU at the same time. Alas, while I'm comfortable building my own desktops, laptops, I'd rather buy off the shelf and do some aftermarket upgrades (RAM and SSD).

Originally Posted by jswinden

The bad thing about barebones PCs is that if you screw it up who are you going to call? You are the CS rep, so get ready to call yourself and complain about the thing working wonky! Yep, no warranty either, except for individual parts. That might not matter to some, but it is certainly a consideration for many.

I've always been my own tech support so no issue there. Warranty for individual parts is usually longer than the 1-year warranty offered by most OEMs. However, that's exactly the reason I refuse to build PCs for other people. While I'm fine troubleshooting for myself, I'm not willing to play unpaid tech/warranty support for others.

Again, this is just my preference. I know majority of folks just want something that works and would rather not have to deal with any of the above issues. For some, that means Macs, most others, a Windows PC (probably because that's what they're familiar with thanks to software piracy).

[afv011]

Originally Posted by jswinden

If she says it is PITA to her, then it is. It might not be a PITA to you, but you are not her and she was talking about herself. Therefore her statement is very valid.

It's not a PITA. If you need a specific machine, then you know what kind of components are the best fit for your needs, and research is very simple nowadays. And if you can't be bothered to put the PC together yourself, you can always pay a small fee to the shop and they'll be more than happy to put it together for you. You end up still way ahead of buying a ready-made machine.

For people who want a PC to browse the internet and for facebooking, yes, for those it might be overkill and too much trouble to custom build a PC, but JL has mentioned several times that she is up to date with tech and thus should not fall into that category. So no, it is not a PITA if you're mildly into PCs and technology in general.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

One of the gripes that several of my pals have against apple products is that they are all proprietary and you can not go buy hardware/software from anyone besides apple corp. What do you think is apple corp all about closed ended hardware/software?

Why do you keep repeating basically the same posts every couple of months?

[Jessica Lares]

I am into tech in general. However I do not have the capability to build a computer on my own. It would be completely different if I could actually use my other hand, but I can't. It makes it hard to work on the internals inside my computer, especially when you have to press bits into the motherboard. I refuse to pay someone to do that for me.

I still lack the willingness to do that anyway.

And yeah... Didn't we have this thread like last month?

Yep, it is "deja vu all over again," as Yogi Berra once quipped! Maybe he is trying to convince himself to go rogue and buy a Mac.

[kyteflyer]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

Why do you keep repeating basically the same posts every couple of months?

I'm wondering the same thing... I responded last time jbcohen posted on this matter. But not today, thanks, wasting time. Also... he never responds inside the threads... probably sits back to watch the "fun"

[m00min]

I think Apple's iOS software could do with a bit more freedom. I frequently wish for a file system. Oh to be able to grab a file from a Git repo, edit it, upload it somewhere, then check it in again. I mostly jailbreak just so I can hack some symbolic links across app doc folders to combat this.

Apart from that I'm fairly happy with my Apple kit. I can see why Apple lock stuff down, I definitely find I have less tech support requests from family members who use Apple products.

[forsooth]

Apple prime directive: greed

all other directives: refer to prime!

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by forsooth

Apple prime directive: greed

all other directives: refer to prime!

And how is that different from any other corporation?