
US consumers flock to Mac laptops - nickb
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/10/01/apple_market_share_boost/
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jcromartie
I have been a regular Mac user since 2001, and had always tinkered with them
before. One of the most annoying things I find about the platform is its user
base. I mean they types of people who would rail against Windows and
Microsoft, and then freely admit that they had never used Windows a day in
their life. Now there are hordes of users who are just flocking to the
platform because it is _so hot_ right now. A whole new generation of smug Mac
users is born.

I don't even bother going to the Apple Store unless I know I can get something
fixed or exchanged right away, since it is invariably filled with giggling
teenage girls that just want to ogle the shiny hardware.

Maybe it's the inner hipster in me, but I almost feel like I have to ditch
this scene now that it's so popular :)

~~~
James_Johnson
Exactly. Now that I have a Mac, Mac fanboys all assume I'm one of them and
come up to me in the coffee shop to say, "hey, aren't we so much better than
everyone else because of the computers we bought?"

I proceed to rant about all my little pet peeves about Mac OS X and say that
as soon as I get around to it I'm installing Boot Camp and putting Linux on
it.

~~~
unalone
Aww, those are the bad Apples.

I promise, some of us know that our system is flawed. (Not that we aren't
smug, we're just realistically smug.)

The college Mac type is inevitable, though. I'm biased, though, since I'm in
college and have a Mac, so I don't get Mac Smug from other people.

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metatronscube
I love mine!! Its a real road warrior. Got Windows, Ubuntu and Open Solaris on
there and my entire itunes library...and I think for the price points are
great too (and I'm from the UK and it was way more expensive than you guys pay
for it, so I can see why its top on the list)

~~~
unalone
Out of curiosity: what is the advantage of having Open Solaris on your
computer?

~~~
metatronscube
Some of the work I do involves Cramer and NetCool and its just sometimes
easier to test things on that platform.

Edit: Oracle too...

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jacobscott
Is this just straight contradictory to recent analyst downgrades (and Apple's
resulting stock price drop)? I never know quite what to hink of this kind of
market data.

~~~
jeroen
"... 20 per cent of retail notebook sales during July and August."

These numbers may not have been influenced by the credit crisis if awareness
of the situation was not widespread. Or those analysts could be wrong in their
predictions.

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Ben65
Being a hardcore geek, I love running on top of a "unix" like environment. I
should flock to Linux, but Mac OS X is just prettier, and more stable. I don't
know better fonts maybe? For that reason, and I know it seems small, I prefer
Mac. BTW. I only use emacs and Firefox most of the time anyway.

~~~
josefresco
My iPod is pretty, but "stable" and OSX are not two words I use in the same
statement. I think my iPod has gone down more than my two Vista machines since
I've owned them.

~~~
unalone
An iPod isn't the same as Mac OS X.

My computer crashes once every week or two, but it does that when I'm running
ten stressful applications at once. Before my computer I'd never have thought
of trying to burn a CD, create a movie, run diagnostics on my library, and
several other things all at once. Things on Windows crashed haphazardly,
unpredictably. I can run my Mac for days straight and they still go well for
the most part, and when they crash it takes one reset to get it all working
again.

iPods have a much lower standard, sadly, though my iPod touch hasn't crashed
once since the software update.

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drawkbox
I got one for the sole reason to develop with Unity3D. And the iPhone. A
better python environment than windows. To help develop multiplaform games and
so many other reasons. It is attractive to developers as well as consumers.

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omouse
Just curious: so has anyone tried running Haiku, AmigaOS or some other non-
mainstream, non-UNIX-based OS on their Mac laptops?

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TweedHeads
I got two dells before my 4-yr-old iBook G4 and let me tell you, quality is
king.

Dells are now pieces of crap falling apart and my iBook is still runing like
new. Nothing loose, flaky or damaged at all.

You get what you pay for, I got quality and a beautiful piece of hardware.

~~~
kingkongrevenge
The high end thinkpads are the standard for quality.

~~~
unalone
I've used Thinkpads before and I always feel slightly dirty doing so. They're
powerful, but they're ugly and they feel wrong when I'm using them. There's a
disconnect in particular between the hardware and the software.

I'm using a MacBook Pro right now and everything about it feels perfect.
Multitouch in particular: it's the only feature on a laptop where I now feel
bad using desktop computers because now they feel less smooth.

So I'll go out and disagree with you and say that Apple's the standard for
quality, though (as always) I'd be interesting in seeing your counterpoints.

