Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

Maybe he means the Surface...some people refer to those as computers...

Best,
Todd Ferguson

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

I don’t recall.

wteffey Loc: Ocala, FL USA

Wow, and people worry about fake reviews on Amazon!

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Twenty years ago that was true, not so much anymore.

gessman Loc: Colorado

I've heard that you don't ever want buy an older used Mac from like Craigslist with the idea that you'll upgrade it by installing a newer OS and install some newer software on it to bring it up to date because newer OS and software won't work on it.

One other thing I've heard which is too much for me, if you ever buy a used Mac don't forget to get the password for it, and never lose it, 'cause the original owner is the only person who can get it unlocked if the password is misplaced. That's a little more "Nanny" than I'm interested in and I'll happily forego any intrinsic benefit the Apple stores represent to avoid that kind of control over any merchandise I have bought, especially at a premium price and I, too, started in the 1960s with punch cards on a mini-mainframe IBM 360-20 and necessary peripheral equipment that would fill a 7-11 store including 2, 5 megabyte disc drives the size of large washing machines. I have not been without a computer since and have very nicely avoided the ownership of any Apple products.

The original selling point of Macs was that they were "idiot proof" and it looks like that may still be true today.

Albert2000

I have been a Mac user since the days of the small b&W SE units. I have NEVER been hacked, had a virus or malware infect my Mac. I use a 27" iMac and a MacBook Air. I have had to fight off numerous malware attacks on my Windows 10 machine over the years. Each has their place. Reliability and resale value of Apple products cannot be beaten. I would only consider a Windows machine if the software I wanted was not available for the Mac. I have upgraded hard drives and memory on older Macs over the years. Oh, and did I say they are WAY more intuitive and easy to use?

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Desktop Macs do not all cost $4000 dollars; only the extremely high end ones do--go look at the prices, buy yourself a Mac, and don’t look back. You’ll never be sorry.

Brucej67 Loc: Cary, NC

I started on a IBM1401 in the mid 60's using assembler spent 45 years on mainframe and 15 years on PC networks (mainly Microsoft OS). I am partial to Microsoft operating systems since I have programmed on them, but as far as graphics I like Apple OS better, however it is still only an opinion and mine may not be the same as yours or others.

RickL Loc: Vail, Az

We are a Mac family. Got tired of dealing with viruses and windows so switched over to Macs three years ago. I have never been hacked and never had a virus problem since. My daughters schools all recommend Mac Books. In our family we have three Macbook pros and one Mac. Well worth the price and will handle Affinity, Lightroom and Photoshop easily. As to quality, it is hard to beat.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

My background is actually similar to yours. I was a IBM 360/370 assembler programmer and supported mainframe systems for years in IBM Assembler, COBOL, PL/I and Fortran before moving on to PC development and support. I still have my IBM "green cards". They were green for the 360 but yellow for the 370 even though they were still called green cards..

BebuLamar

Why the Surface Pro and the Surface Book not considered computers? What do they miss?

blackest Loc: Ireland

Currently 2009 macs and newer are supported by the latest versions of osx the 2008 macbook pro is officially limited to 10.11 due to the wifi card no longer being supported. Older Macbooks were limited by the 32bit efi and lack of 64bit drivers for the graphics card. The mid 2006 macbook pro has a 32 bit cpu which can't run the 64 bit OSX versions. We are about to enter 2018 is this really a problem?

In actual fact I bought a 2006 Macbook pro recently for $40 (mainly for the 85 watt magsafe power supply) It came with CS4 and Microsoft Office and was able to get it to dualboot the latest version of Windows 10 although the graphics card driver hasn't been updated since vista.

As for the password nonsense you can always reinstall OSX if you can't reset the password on the system. With the 2006 system I bought i just added a new administrator account under my own name and deleted the previous owners account.

Every mac has a unique ID and while there are plenty of sellers who will try to bullshit you usually trying to tell you it is a newer model than it is. A simple check online will reveal exactly which model it is how it was configured when new and the limitations it may have. I'm not so keen on some of the newer models due to the fixed ram and building the SSD into the mainboard. Its not good for repair or upgrade. I'm happy enough to stick with my 2011 Macbook Pro with 16GB Ram and 1 TB hard drive and the battery which I also replaced.

I think Apple is starting to notice the kickback from users who are holding off buying newer systems. We may see the results in the new mac pro due next year.

gessman Loc: Colorado

I, too, programmed in Assembler, Cobol, Fortran, and RPG and have only considered using a Mac once. I'd heard that Final Cut Pro was a superior video processing program to anything on a PC so I investigated it and found it to be inferior to what I had been using on my PC machines, Pinnacle Studio, which was the only video editor that would burn a blu ray at that time. I have to admit that malware is an issue on occasion but I have yet to get a virus on a PC and am not sure what that scare is all about.

Oh, and to RickL, the person who said his daughter's school recommended Mac, that's because in an attempt to make inroads into the business community with their products, Apple gave schools, nationwide, computers for the kids to learn on hoping the kids would take them into the workplace and unseat PC computers as the king of the business world which hasn't happened just yet so of course, schools would recommend Apple, if for no other reason than to pander to Apple for more freebies. Apple did, admittedly, get the jump on IBM and clone makers in some areas, graphics among them, but the software world for PC machines has blossomed very nicely and I would seriously challenge anyone to prove that a Mac is superior to a PC in engineering feats which was the Mac's main advantage. The Mac OS has been a subset of Unix which generally requires less resources and therefore typically runs faster than anything that Microsoft has managed to come up with to date that I'm aware of so, while I haven't bothered to keep up totally in the last few years, as far as I know, any related advantage a Mac might have over a PC would be in the speed of processing floating point decimal calculations which are important to graphics. I might have a different opinion of Apple if they weren't so stinkin' proprietary and controlling of their machines.

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

I like using Windows, lots of choices , adaptability, plenty good, in fact am waiting for delivery of an HP right now, had one since WI 8 (upgraded to 8.1 and 10) and think it's time for a new unit, still works though, and has enough power to run PSP fast enough for me, I don't use Adobe products so I can't help there, Bob.

BTW both HP and Corel have deals right now, direct from manufacturer.

mainshipper Loc: Hernando, Florida

I didn't realize Apple Care was free forever and that your old machine is supported forever. Does Apple still take your calls for the MacBook? That makes we want to dust off my Windows 98 PC that's in the garage.