Apple MacBook

My overall rating

I got talked into going MAC about five months ago. It was time for a new computer and I had the money, and right now I'm trying to remember why I did it. I did not have any serious problems with using PC, except a general dissent over the...   +

I got talked into going MAC about five months ago. It was time for a new computer and I had the money, and right now I'm trying to remember why I did it. I did not have any serious problems with using PC, except a general dissent over the monopolization of Microsoft products. I had no idea how spoiled I was, even having been stuck with the infamous Windows Me for the last five years previous. I could always manage to get it to do what I wanted. And Vista, in spite of being a Microsoft product, did promise to have the prettiness of a MAC.

I remember how cool looking the box was; even the styrofoam was groovy. There was tissue paper and ribbon.

My first disappointment came soon enough. No word processor was included, and the price of Mac software is exorbitant. What's more, the OSX versions of freeware and shareware word processors really suck. In my opinion, Safari is not as good a browser as Firefox, and I have not been able to get the Mac version of Firefox to run properly on my macbook yet.

It was a big frustration, dealing with the fact that the software they DO include is mostly fluff and junk, and it is packaged so that you have to load all of it or none. This is an issue because my hard drive space is so limited compared to my desktop PC. It took a significant amount of time to remove all the unwanted applications one by one. I HAD to, because there was not enough free memory to run my favorite games, otherwise.

Sure it's user friendly- if you're willing to become an "iperson," and let the mac make all your decisions for you.
The help is not helpful- you have to use the exact expression they did in the search for help, or else weed through a vast number of completely unrelated topics to find the one you wanted. For me, the strain has been in getting past the tide of apple and mac brand marketing, necessary to get anything done. (I am so sick of everything being preceded by "i," that I made a folder called "ego," and stuck all the "i" stuff in there.)

Yup, instead of straightforward usefulness, every application is just a little too concerned with continuous marketing of the brand. Open up itunes, and you're automatically stuck waiting for the STORE to upload (when you just wanted to copy music from your CDs to your ipod). Click on an image file, and you're automatically waiting for iphoto to open and create a whole new album (when you just wanted to check the image). Sure, you can change the defaults, but that is just more time and work this machine makes you do, all in the name of "user-friendliness." When you eventually do go to the itunes store, good luck finding any of your favorite music, unless you are twenty-something and the album is currently in stock at Walmart. A real shame, since the best music is unavailable in stores but could easily be made available for download. Thousands and thousands of old (pre 2003) songs could be offered, but aren't. It appears innovative for Mac to encourage users to submit their own "i-" mix, but it is only as long as Mac has already profited (the cuts must have been purchased at the itunes store, and it is only Mac that really profits, by selling the mixes for the same price as a new album or original cut. What does the author get, for buying the music and doing all the work? In exchange for her intellectual property rights, the mixer is rewarded only by getting to naming the mix.

Another thing I really miss about my PC, is being able to choose any image and make it an icon, and then personalize all my most-used applications with a "code" desktop icon that has personal meaning, instead of little "Mac" advertisements all over my desktop. You can change an icon on MacBook, but only to an icon already in use, as far as I can tell. My PC was something that was easy to learn on, but I've got a feeling only true geeks can get the macbook to do what she wants it to do (as opposed to the user being indoctrinated to be happy with all the choices mac has made for them).

Mac tries to be user-friendly, but I think it has only succeeded in dumbing down its user population by the limitations it imposes in its quest for "friendliness." The average person would NOT have to strain their brain to answer the few questions required to customize the installation of included software. I have a sneaking suspicion that the actual modus operendi behind the friendly face is greed- to make any true understanding of the machine a task for specialists only.

It is by the hard way, that I discovered the reason for Mac having such a small share of the market: both the operating system and its branded applications are inferior to alternatives. I think the company has been swallowed up by its marketing department, who is hell-bent on trying to solve the 8-15% market share problem by an unprecedented ad campaign and wholesale indoctrination of its targeted demographic (anybody dumb enough to buy a Mac). The users are told they are super-cool, and then dumbed down by overly simplistic instructions that leave nothing to guesswork (or to the user's choice, beyond a choice of pre-fabricated desktop "styles").

They should take all that money they are spending on advertising, hire a few geniuses who love their work and are satisfied with average pay, and make a better product. With the money left over, they have their marketing department change subject matter and do an ad campaign to solve the global warming problem.    -