This argument has a huge flaw. Once upon a time a Mac was seriously
over engineered but they are not today. A Mac largely uses components
that come right off the shelf the same as PC manufacturers. The only
exception would be the logic board but even there Apple is using far
fewer custom chips today and utilizing off the shelf components there
too. Apple's assembly quality control is probably better which
accounts for Apple's lower dead on arrive rate than other
manufacturers but once you've achieved burn in I don't think the
argument that Apple's are higher quality holds water.
It is completely true that Macs last longer than PCs but I'd argue
that it is largely OS related today and not hardware. In the 90's
while hardware was getting faster and faster and Microsoft released
95, 98, and Millennium, each version of the OS required faster
computers, more memory, higher powered graphics cards, bigger hard
drives. I upgraded my Win3 machine to Win95 but two weeks later
reinstalled Win3 and bought a new computer with Win95. I didn't
upgrade to Win98, I knew better. I bought a new computer. That
computer wasn't too old when Win2k came out so I upgraded and lived
with it for a few months before buying a new computer. I didn't
upgrade to WinXP and I won't upgrade - in face based on the specs I
CANNOT upgrade to WinVista.
But when I bought a new PowerMac 7200 which came with MacOS 7.x every
time I upgraded to the new version of the MacOS I got a faster
computer! Sure, when I upgraded to OS 9 I needed more memory and by
that time I had a much larger hard drive but the fact remains that
from MacOS 7 through MacOS 9 while memory requirements increased the
upgrade didn't create a speed hit - it gave a speed increase. Now the
shift to OS X required that I buy a new computer but from OS 10.1
through 10.3 I got a faster computer and if 10.4 didn't give me
greater speed it didn't slow it down either.
And that is why I think Macs are lasting longer than PCs.
David - who not only posses every Mac he's ever bought (except for
the PowerBook that tried urban surfing) but also still has all but
one Windows PC he's ever bought. (It's just that the older PCs are
now running linux, not windows)
At 01:31 PM -0600 08/17/2005, Mike K wrote:
I disagree again, peecees are thrown away because they die at an
alarming rate and the parts of the most common computers are the
cheapest low-bid parts they can find. It has nothing to do with
technology.
Macs don't die, except for CRT iMacs of course....... Macs do become
outdated but not obsolete. Peecees don't last long enough to become
outdated like Macs do.
...yer kidding right? There is a massive dose of sarcasm in there?
Actually, it matches my experience.
With only a few major exceptions
early CRT iMacs - flyback problems and fried modems.
early LCD iMacs - floppy gooseneck and suddenly dead pixels.
Mac hardware is MUCH more durable than PC hardware. Between my
workshop here and a friend's depot (a Mac and PC repair store),
we've got a lot of working Macs. Quite dirty etc, but working.
Then we've got dozens of dead PCs. Fried this or that, etc.
This matches my home / personal experience too. Every Mac I've
ever owned, since the 80s (Plus, II, IIci, 7100/66, 7300/120, B&W,
PB 180, PB G3, PB G4, etc) are ALL still working. In the last five
years alone, my housemate has killed three desktop PCs and a
laptop. His 4th desktop just went to the shop yesterday for
repair. His "new" (1yro) laptop has already required repair.
Don't get me wrong... I think overall software-enforced
obsolescence kills off more computers than hardware failures. But
it still amazes me at how fragile PC hardware is... and how willing
the lemmings are to buy it.
- Dan.
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