QOTD: What Don't You Like About Macs?

[deredita]

Pricing, and that Apple uses laptop hardware in their desktops (excluding the Mac Pro).

 

[Milleman]

Yes, Apple are for iDiots. The ones that got granit floor, marble tables, a fully equipped stainless kitchen and doesn't know how to cook real food. Everything is is just a fasade and cosmetica. Those are the Apple iDiots that sticks to whatever that company is selling overpriced. Just for the trend of it.

 

[SAL-e]

It is Steve Jobs character. He has great qualities, but he is dishonest person and his dishonesty is reflected on every level in Apple from the top to the bottom. Here are some examples:

Apple investors are asking: "What is the health of the Apple's CIO?"
Apple response: None or later "Steve Jobs health is private issue." or in lames terms "It is not your business!"
Sorry, but investor have given you money and they deserve simple answer like: "Yes, there is some health related issues, but we are working on succession plan, if his condition worsens."

Most people here all ready have pointed out how untruthful is their marketing campaign. So I will skip this one.

Apple is censoring anyone that disagree with Steve Jobs: their own users, journalists, formal employees, and etc.

Apple sends their army of lawyers after any one who is trying to do something that don't get blessed by Steve Jobs or even worst if someone try to imitate Apple. At the same time they will imitated others successes: Apple GUI imitated from Xerox, iPhone trademark.... Cisco, and etc.

Many users started complaining about DRM and Apple for many years was putting the blame on the Music companies, but Apple was the last to start offering DRM-free music long after Music.com and Amazon.com. Even today they will force everyone to re-buy their music in order to remove the DRM. Why?

and the list can go for ever.

Current Apple is one big pyramid scam and everyone who supports that kind of personal cult deserves to be ripped off.

For the record. I started programming on Apple II computer and I had to build my first computer; Apple II clone, by digging into the factory's garbage container to salvage defective PCBs and parts. So I was Apple fan, but their dishonesty is unacceptable. It is very sad that many other companies are following in their steps.

 

[xxsk8er101xx]

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/apple-tv-patent-wii-remote,news-3611.html#BOM_comments

This is why I hate Apple/Macs.

They steal other peoples technology, patent it, claim they invented it and then turn around and sue the other company they stole the idea from for patent infringement.

 

[Pyroflea]

Macs, as well as most Apple products, have a tendency of being grossly overpriced for the performance bracket; that is a MAJOR factor right there. Who would pay twice as much, for less? Another things is people affiliated with Apple. Steve Jobs, as well as all his little puppets over in Apple, act like their products are vastly superior to all, and bash other product's performance, saying theirs is better. Horrible marketing, in my opinion. Most Mac users you see are pompous assholes walking around like they own the place. This is from my experience at least.

 

[tuannguyen]

Awesome feedback you guys. Glad to see everyone being very vocal about their thoughts. Just keep in mind not to insult people. I know Apple's a pretty touchy subject here.

Also, reminder, try pricing out a similar system to the MacPro I mentioned in the article, and see what kind of difference in price you can come up with. Very interested to seeing what configurations you can come up with.

Try building the best system you can for the price that Apple's selling its Mac Pro for, and post what you come up with too. $3,299 is the price of Apple's top base config for the Mac Pro. Let's see what you guys come up with!

/ Tuan

 

[EYE]

I do not own any Apple product myself but what i hate is the price!
I also hate the "simplicity" that Apple boasts about, i mean come on, if windows had everything out of the package they would have to face huge antitrust lawsuits, how is it possible that Apple does not need to open to 3rd party software given the market penetration it has attained. I read a comment above saying that Apple praised ignorance, and that is a little bit unfair i mean that is a complete social phenomena (try watching bachelor, American idol, Hollywood movies, etc)

 

[tuannguyen]

[citation][nom]merickel[/nom]I purchased a mac about two years ago along with the "apple care protection plan" after being told by my sales associate that no matter what happened to my machine it would be replaced under the coverage. I was told that i could even bring my macbook into the store, spike it on the ground, and they would replace it. I had to find out the hard way that this wasnt true. About a month ago it fell off my bed at college and when i called them to ask what to do they told me that "accidental damage is not covered by the plan." I started asking around and it turns out that everyone i know that has a mac was told the same thing when they were asked if they wanted to buy the protection plan. It sounds like they have their employees say that to get you to buy a "protection plan" that doesnt protect anything. Also, everyone i know that has a mac book has had to/needs to replace their cd drive. Why? Because its a cheap, crappy, overpriced part. Any company, whether it be Apple, Windows, Wonderbread, or freaking LEGO, that would lie to its customers just to get more money out of them, is not a company that i want to do business with. Their customer service is crap, their products are crap, and their prices are crap. I thought that I would never go back to windows, and here i am on my dell happily playing games again and getting things accomplished because there is 3rd party support for whatever it is i want to do. No matter what that is.[/citation]

Hi merickel -

I think the sales person who tried to tack on the Apple Care Extended warranty to you was a total jerk. I have never been told that. Because frankly, it's untrue, even by common sense.

There's no warranty out there that covers going into the store and spiking the MacBook on the ground and then expecting that Apple would provide you a new replacement on the spot. If they did do that, that isn't "good" customer service, that's just bad business practice.

The Apple Care Extended warranty doesn't give you "more" than the original warranty does in terms of what is covered. What it's suppose to do is extend the warranty time period.

Even in the automotive world, there's no such warranty, and we're talking about a car--something that costs many more times than a laptop. For example, Honda isn't going to say sure, we'll give you a new car, if you drive into the dealer, drive into their building, wreck the car, and then ask for a replacement. They'll probably just call the cops at that point I think.

/ Tuan

 

[tuannguyen]

[citation][nom]Milleman[/nom]Yes, Apple are for iDiots. The ones that got granit floor, marble tables, a fully equipped stainless kitchen and doesn't know how to cook real food. Everything is is just a fasade and cosmetica. Those are the Apple iDiots that sticks to whatever that company is selling overpriced. Just for the trend of it.[/citation]

Guys -

Some of the comments are getting a little bit out of hand. Calling people who use Mac products ignorant, morons, and idiots, isn't a legitimate factor for why you dislike Macs. I'm all for calling out Apple and its hardware, but customers shouldn't have anything to do with why you dislike a company and its products. Let's stick to the hardware here guys.

The comment in quotes is an example of something not to say. Leave people out of this. Saying you dislike a Mac's hardware because Apple customers don't know how to cook real food doesn't make any sense.

Thanks / Tuan

 

[mpasternak]

Tuan, you've set lofty goals. I'll give Apple credit on one thing right now. They've managed to find a supplier for dual socket 1336 based boards before almost anyone else in the market. Which means they've cornered a company (intel? Nvidia? Not sure) into some deal to get shipments before the rest of the world. I've been scouring the net for a a few hours tonight and have come up with near Zilch. Nodda. for these motherboards.

But as I mentioned, this isn't the reason for my dislike of Apple. its the chunking of computer parts down to "this is what we have, so this is what you want" mentality. As i explained with the Macbook comparison pricing in my comment of earlier. Apple has created their macbook and then locks in their price and performance. Sure if you bought the macbook in the first month it came out, it was appropriately priced. But now 5 months later, their macbook is identically priced and identically specced. Meanwhile all the competitors have come out with newer, faster, and cheaper counterparts. Apple won't update for a while so that margin of performance to the dollar in comparison to other companies keeps getting bigger and bigger. Apples mentality is "so? we're apple. not microsoft!" To me that doesn't cut it. Lagging behind and charging the same isn't suitable business.

it sums down to apple telling the customer what he needs, and not what he wants. "The customer is wrong".

If i wanted to build a system to my liking i could with other manufacturesrs. But with Apple, you're streamlined through a simpllistic purchasing system in which your options are limited to 2 or 3 processors, 2 or 3 ram choices, and software.

There is also a considerable gap in their market strategy. The macbook's cover the laptop range from Mid priced and up with no entry level product ($1000 for the oldschool white isn't entry level in this economy). Their Desktop version are either the iMac's which are basically laptops, in fancy cases with screens. Still suffering from the same dilemna as the laptops. Slow to refresh. non upgradable with technology that has outdated itself fast. then instead of having a Midrange PC for the everyday user, it Leapfrogs to the workstation market. The Mac Pro is not an everyday PC that the majority of people use in either home or workplace. They are intended to be Workstations. However, WHile the CPU's are currently refreshed (give it 3 months, everyone else will have the same tech out for cheaper). The Video card is lacking. But because it is apple, they don't let you just simply swap out to a better card.

it returns again to the mentality: we're telling you what you want, and you'll like it. CHoice? you don't want choice. you want only what we give you.

 

[SAL-e]

[citation][nom]tuannguyen[/nom]Saying you dislike a Mac's hardware because Apple customers don't know how to cook real food doesn't make any sense.Thanks / Tuan[/citation]

Hi Tuan,
Calling anybody a name is not polite, but if the Mac user goes around and tells everyone that he is the best cook because he is Apple user is legitimate reason not to like the Apple. That is the essence of Apple's marketing.

But I encourage everyone to remain polite if you want to be heard.

Thanks.

 

[tuannguyen]

[citation][nom]SAL-e[/nom]Hi Tuan,Calling anybody a name is not polite, but if the Mac user goes around and tells everyone that he is the best cook because he is Apple user is legitimate reason not to like the Apple. That is the essence of Apple's marketing.But I encourage everyone to remain polite if you want to be heard.Thanks.[/citation]

Hi SAL-e -

I know what you're trying to say and I do have empathy towards this. But really, if a Mac user came up to me and said he's better at cooking than I am simply because he uses a Mac, I would discredit him as a person for that claim he's making based on the computer he's using, not the manufacturer of that computer.

When someone comes up an makes an insulting statement, the target of legitimate criticism should be the person. That's why I asked everyone who dislikes Macs why they dislike macs--not why do they dislike Mac users. I used PCs the majority of my life and never did I felt the need to diss a Mac user. Now I use Macs too and I don't feel I need to insult a PC user.

There's so much hate going on in the world--everyone needs to be more kind and learn to have empathy towards each other. We're all going to die one day and insulting people isn't going to mean anything in the end, only how much you've been kind to someone.

Cheers / Tuan

 

[SAL-e]

[citation][nom]tuannguyen[/nom]I would discredit him as a person for that claim he's making based on the computer he's using, not the manufacturer of that computer.
When someone comes up an makes an insulting statement, the target of legitimate criticism should be the person.
[/citation]
I agree with you and Apple Marketing should take notice also and quit promoting that kind of behavior. I clearly stated that if Apple is using that kind of marketing they deserve the back lash of it.
[citation][nom]tuannguyen[/nom]
There's so much hate going on in the world--everyone needs to be more kind and learn to have empathy towards each other. We're all going to die one day and insulting people isn't going to mean anything in the end, only how much you've been kind to someone.Cheers / Tuan[/citation]
Also agree!
Cheers SAL-e.

 

[seboj]

When someone comes up an makes an insulting statement, the target of legitimate criticism should be the person. That's why I asked everyone who dislikes Macs why they dislike macs--not why do they dislike Mac users. I used PCs the majority of my life and never did I felt the need to diss a Mac user. Now I use Macs too and I don't feel I need to insult a PC user.

Sorry, but asking someone why they don't like Apple, and not allowing them to include complaints about the users, is like asking someone to build a computer without using a motherboard. It's just bad science.

 

[tuannguyen]

[citation][nom]SAL-e[/nom]I agree with you and Apple Marketing should take notice also and quit promoting that kind of behavior. I clearly stated that if Apple is using that kind of marketing they deserve the back lash of it.Also agree! Cheers SAL-e.[/citation]

Hehe, I know what you mean, Apple's TV spots are definitely filled with all sorts of misleading information. But Apple's marketing at the end of the day, can't fool me. After using PCs for as long as I have, it becomes easy to cut through marketing BS--from any company.

Sometimes some of Apple's commercials do make me chuckle a bit, like the one called Bean Counter, and then I move on and get back to reality, get back to work. But I laugh at Bean Counter because Apple pokes fun of Microsoft spending money on marketing instead of fixing Vista's list of problems. That commercial doesn't point fingers at PC users, so I can deal with that one.

 

[tuannguyen]

[citation][nom]seboj[/nom]Sorry, but asking someone why they don't like Apple, and not allowing them to include complaints about the users, is like asking someone to build a computer without using a motherboard. It's just bad science.[/citation]

seboj -

The title of the article is Why Don't You Like About Macs.

Seriously though, if you intend to start insulting people, this isn't the place for it.

/ Tuan

 

[raywong]

The worst thing by far about Apple computers is their bad technical design/build quality--particularly of 1st-gen products.

I worked at a university and we got 11 1st-gen iMacs (white w/LCD screens). Within 18 months 12(!) of them died. How is that possible? One died with the exact same problem 6 months after it had been refurbed by Apple itself.

I was told some sort of coil sandwiched between the screen and the 'logic' board was overheating/expanding, pressing up against both thus causing failure. If you had looked carefully at Apple's website, you would have found a disclosure hidden away that Apple had voluntarily lengthened their 1yr warranty to 2yrs for this particular symptom only.

Why they didn't just recall everything is beyond me. A look at the affected S/N's looked like it might have been every 1st-gen ever made. Only a terrible design or defective materials could lead to a 109% failure rate (admittedly small sample here). The cooling for the unit was obviously not sufficient, oddly reminiscent of the Mac G4 Cube...

Shortly thereafter, we got shipped 1st-gen Mac Book Pros and I heard another litany of overheating problems from users.

 

[seboj]

[citation][nom]tuannguyen[/nom]seboj -The title of the article is Why Don't You Like About Macs.Seriously though, if you intend to start insulting people, this isn't the place for it./ Tuan[/citation]

You're absolutely right, let me fix that for you.

Sorry, but asking someone why they don't like Macs, and not allowing them to include complaints about the users, is like asking someone to build a computer without using a motherboard. It's just bad science.

 

[tuannguyen]

[citation][nom]seboj[/nom]You're absolutely right, let me fix that for you.Sorry, but asking someone why they don't like Macs, and not allowing them to include complaints about the users, is like asking someone to build a computer without using a motherboard. It's just bad science.[/citation]

lol. /palm face



/ Tuan

 

[mdillenbeck]

Tuan -

Looking over this and waffle911's response, I think it is important that most posters at Tom's fall in the category of being at least "armchair computer engineers". Just like auto freaks, we love taking our factory components and aftermarket parts and tweaking them until we get the ultimate system.

While waffle911 makes a careful point that you can buy an Apple system and put in after market parts (but not do a build-from-scratch system or upgrade a motherboard without a criminal act), many of us prefer to buy the parts we want right off the bat. PC companies will let us do these custom builds, but often times they are just as expensive or more expensive that Apple - and we often would not buy those systems although we wish we could.

In my post I was a bit unclear. I understand that you can add parts to an Apple system, but often times there are warranty issues and even EULA issues that could be costly or make you criminal. Many times these issues can come up with PC Manufactured systems, but I am looking at the main alternative of DIY systems - such as the article that talked about the DIY laptops recently posted on Tom's.

However, there is also a great deal of marketing pressure from Apple to buy Apple products. True, you can use any external drive with Time Machine and any router, but there is a desire to get you to buy a matched set of Apple products. There is a definite closed system philosophy, and documented cases where Apple has silenced dissenters. Hence my comparison to the totalitarianism shown in their computers that was to represent PCs.

However, once we recognize that a computer is a tool, we can hopefully be more understanding of personal choice. Sometimes we look at the price-to-performance ratios of a particular tool in the area we wish to apply it, such as looking at the mpg ratings of a car - other times it is the message conveyed by the branding of the tool is what matters most, such as driving a luxury car like a Lexus. However, there is no 'one size fits all tool'.

Personally, I dislike being branded by the stuff I own. I don't use the HP TX2120US because I like the branding image - I needed a cheap tablet PC and this offered the best price-to-features ratio I could find. It is this same dislike of being branded by the stuff I own that keeps me away from Apple computers, Old Navy stores, and Mountain Dew. Who I am defines what I own and not the other way around - I am not a dark silhouette that accents my dangling white earbuds.

Can there be peace between "Mac fanboys" and "PC fanboys"? Sure, once people get beyond the stereotyping and learn to accept that other people have different but valid priorities, values, and judgments.

Perhaps a better question of the day would have been 'In what ways can we help PC and Mac users see validity in the personal choices they make, and what values do you hold that influence your personal choice?'

 

[Cuddles]

[citation][nom]NuclearShadow[/nom]"Is it the pricing?Is it the software?Is it the operating system?Is it the compatibility?"Yes to all of these and lets not forget their untruth marketing such as they try to say they aren't a PC and their annoying ads. Plus the censorship factor they will delete or lock any topic where people report common problems with their apple product and they also do the same to any constructive criticism. Anyways I'll try and make a similar or better system later and post the results.[/citation]

Exactly.
Up till the marketing I really didn't care but after I became a person who won't ever buy an Apple Product. Father of three (two are teenagers)and before the untruthful marketing blitz I would have been one of those families where the kids each got an iPod and the wife an iPhone. Now the company and the people who even buy the products are just the kind of things I want my family to stay away from.

 

[jdhirst]

The one button mouse.

That's all I've ever seen on the demo macs at the stores. Really? Sticking with the single button, eh? They have seen the mouse scroll button right? That prideful attitude really turns me off.

 

[Cuddles]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131363
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103649
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227320 X 2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125256 X 2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148337 X 3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817379009
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119150
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119150
MB: $199 Asus AM 3
CPU: $147 Phenom 720
RAM: $200 8 GB Ram
GPU: $400 2 4870
HD: $400 4.5 TB's
PS: $250 1000W
Case: $200 Cosmos Closest to Mac Look
Blu Ray/ HD-DVD $110
Total:$1910

OK. This computer is something I would want for myself and thus I made the computer just for my needs, I choose the AM3 720, ASUS MB was high, best of the line in RAM, Power Supply, and Case. The Blue Ray Player can play HD DVD also.

I'll finish up tomorrrow

 

[Xenophage]

The main thing I hate about Mac is that its always been a closed platform. That's why PC's have always been more hip, despite what the advertising says. PC hardware has always been more innovative and better priced because there's so much competition.

I also have always despised the "user-friendly" (read: moron proof) OS that doesn't let you do jack shit with the system. Again, they've made some inroads here, which I wholly approve of.

Mostly, the pricing is ridiculous. I'll pit my sub $1000 PC against the highest end Macintosh, FLOP for FLOP.

 

[enforcer22]

Im not sure if im being asked what i DO like or what i DONT like so ill awnser like this

Not a damn thing.

Everything.