early 90's
bought a Mac Quadra 660AV

8mb of ram and a 256mb hard drive! 33mhz woohoo!

plus laser writer (mac)

plus colour inkjet (mac)

i think i spunked over 3.5 grand on that lot IN THE EARLY 90's FFS! i wasn't long out of college had no job but thought this would 'pay for itself in freelance work' in some ways it did - i created a CV on it that set me on my way career wise, that was about all i created on the fucker.

i learned my lesson though, never ever pay for your own hardware, it will be long obsolete while the sting of paying for it still burns deep - i still work in the creative racket but make sure any time i move job i get it written into my contract that aside from my desktop mac i get a bang up to date MacBook Pro provided and most recently an iPhone.

my motto is be good to yourself - just don't pay for it
( spimf ™ is whoever you want him to be, Sat 2 Oct 2010, 0:26, 13 replies)

Never pay for your own hardware
Easy in principal - not so easy in practise. Still, at least you had a nice retro rig to flog on ebay..
(mymilkshakebringsallthemongstotheyard poison hearts, poison minds - joining hate, Sat 2 Oct 2010, 1:29, closed)

dont be daft
i flung the lot in a skip years ago
( spimf ™ is whoever you want him to be, Sat 2 Oct 2010, 2:19, closed)

Best place for Apple kit, really

( broadsword now that's fresh, Sat 2 Oct 2010, 4:04, closed)

my mate has a good plan. he gets a list of the components he wants in a pc and the prices. then he looks at how much coin he is prepared to pay for said pc. he waits until the total price of the components has come down to equal the coin he's willing to part with - and thats usually only a matter of months.
( enoughblueskyforsailorstrousers, Sat 2 Oct 2010, 1:53, closed)

'pc'
*disgusts*
( spimf ™ is whoever you want him to be, Sat 2 Oct 2010, 2:20, closed)

do you get equally sniffy about different brands of screwdriver?
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Sat 2 Oct 2010, 11:59, closed)

its more than a brand darling, its a lifestyle choice
seriously though - im a designer/art director and i've used macs for 20 years. i have used pc's and seen companies try to suggest they are just as good for design work and set up non mac studios, doesn't work. the fact is they're just no where near as good for my line of work.

the entire design and print industry uses them because they are the best thing for the job - it wouldn't get by the procurement people to simply suggest the look pretty or because they suit poncy designer preferences

pc's are fine for writing code and building websites with, if you really must.
( spimf ™ is whoever you want him to be, Sat 2 Oct 2010, 20:26, closed)

out of interest, what is it that PCs actually *can't* do? I'm pretty sure 'can't' got supplanted ages ago by 'can, but arguably in a less efficient manner', which is generally mitigated by the increased amount of processing you can chuck at a job for the same amount of cash.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Sun 3 Oct 2010, 22:09, closed)

They can't do much without pissing you off
when you're used to the Mac just getting out of the way and letting you work.

Speaking as a Windows domain admin of 15 years experience, currently for about 400 machines, it's Mac all the way when you want to actually get something done.

*Unless* what you want done is best done by software that doesn't run on a Mac, of course. That's something that doesn't happen much any more.
( Fronds are waving gently on, Mon 4 Oct 2010, 1:17, closed)

Yes... Out of passing interest, I did a quick search for "what can Macs do that PCs can't", and it was mostly this sort of unquantifiable nonsense, taken and repeated almost verbatim from the various Mac ad campaigns. That, and 'well, they look very pretty!" - which is more or less the same logic my three-year-old daughter employed when choosing her Fisher Price faux-computer tat.

If Macs really do 'just work' - why are there forums devoted to their various errors, and why do they have a repairs department? Why does their marketing strategy seem to hang itself on being some kind of nerdy lifestyle choice, rather than telling you what the things can actually accomplish better than a cheaper, generic alternative?

I'm cheerfully ignorant of Macs, which was why I was asking an honest question on the matter, and I'm genuinely interested in finding a decent answer. I've never, ever had the vaguest hint of a problem getting a PC to do exactly what I wish it to do, and tend to lump complaints that other people can't as irrelevent PICNIC errors.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Mon 4 Oct 2010, 1:52, closed)

One thing for me justifies the extra cost
Spotlight search: instant response, full-text searching across every document, email, past-visited website or any other file on the computer. My job involves very long-running engagements with clients and being able to bring up ancient correspondence, specifications or code is essential. I can find things with a single word and it really is instant. I'm not sure how it does it but it's saved my job so many times.

Windows has search, but it's incredibly slow as it chunks through each file on your hard drive, and the indexing service slows everything else down. It doesn't seem to find things that I know are there either.

This feature alone saves me hours a week and more than pays for itself. There's nothing particularly special about Apple hardware, but the operating system is outstanding.
( Scrumper, Mon 4 Oct 2010, 14:04, closed)

pfft. put your leather chaps back on.
( enoughblueskyforsailorstrousers, Sun 3 Oct 2010, 3:44, closed)

Macs
Style over content every time. Three hundred quid worth of laptop components in a two grand case.

Frankly, I would rather drag my old Commodore 64 down from the loft than use a fucking Apple product.
(Billy The Fish wants to gargle with Lucy Pinder's bath water, Tue 5 Oct 2010, 12:18, closed)