If you were starting over

I don't know about the rest but Windows. Macs are stupid. IMO

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I don't know about the rest but Windows. Macs are stupid. IMO

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This. A PC and Surface Pro3 for everyone.

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Can you explain?

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First off, they're proprietary from their head to their feet. They have their own version of everything that tends to have a high markup with little added value to using their version over what everyone else is using (Thunderbolt, for example). Secondly, they're slowly moving towards taking complete control of the user's product out of their hands. The 2013 Retina MacBook Pro models were called "as unrepairable as you can get" by iFixit. Not to mention, their track record with product longevity is not as good as they would have you believe. Just between my girlfriend, her family, and I, I've seen four MacBook Pros suffer Logic Board failure (including my top of the line model with an i7 and 16GB of RAM) and two brand new iMacs completely fail within two months of purchase. When repaired, the iMacs proceeded to fail again within a month.

Every time we've approached them for assistance, repairs, or just information on the issues, they were extremely condescending and unhelpful. Every time they tried to sell us new machines when none of the machines with issues were over 3 years old. When I figured out that my girlfriend's Logic Board had failed, I told her to let them know the issue. They laughed at her when she told them she "thought it was the Logic Board", and they told her that there was no way it was the logic board repeatedly. After their tools didn't come up with an answer, it was taken to the back. She called me to tell me it wasn't the Logic Board, and I was on the phone to hear them stammer through telling her that it was, in fact, the Logic Board after ignoring her saying that for 45 minutes while calling several "Geniuses" to re-run their tools.

They don't have an edge in any area anymore. The lifespan and cost-of-ownership of comparable models between vendors are basically exactly the same. Their hardware is in no way superior, and they've basically covered up the fact that their unibody design is causing failures due to insufficient heat dissipation. There's a reason they had to stop offering discrete graphics in the MacBook Pro line for a while. They offer it again, but there are reports that heat is still a major issue. In two years, it's likely these will fail as well. This is also considering the fact that they've had these exact failures for years across several different models and have had to issue recalls for some due to these failures happening within only a couple months of purchase.

Lastly, the products are marked up and sold as a fashion statement. They tell people they're better, but they can't explain why. They're no safer, and in fact, the world record times for hacking are almost always set on Apple products. These times are in seconds. They're the "upscale" computer to a lot of people. That's it. People buy a trendy, pretty computer with decent power and get to feel smug about it. I loved my MacBook Pro when I ran Linux or Windows on it because it used the hardware better. In OS X, the performance hit was noticeable. It was a great Netflix machine, and it looked beautiful. Other than that, I don't see any reason to put it on a pedestal.

That's why Macs are stupid.

Note: I don't really think Macs are stupid. I just think that they're overrated and overpriced. I still own Macs to develop natively for OS X and iOS, and that doesn't seem to be changing any time soon.

Aw nah

I have two macbook airs as well... But I agree with everything you said

While there's a ton of knowledge and boom in this thread, I can't help but be disappointed in how quickly it got derailed without getting close to answering the OP's question.

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Dijkstra

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dude between this and the thread where you built an app for your fridge i think i've got a new techboard man-crush.

Well at least I partially answered.

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But anyway, where did the Apple subject come from? Are we just trying to bait the Apple Knights in every thread now?

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OP posted a vague, unanswerable question. Someone said Macs are stupid. Another fellow asked why they were stupid. I gave my input. That said, I'm not here to argue all day over this. Everyone has their preferences. However, I do have two things I'd like to point out.

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I've been repeating this and explaining why like a broken record on this forum for a while, but it's mostly unheard by everyone except the few who already understand what I'm talking about. Apple spends money on the display and the design/materials for the chassis to make it more physically durable (and arguably more difficult to access/repair).

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I understand what you're talking about quite well. You're saying that the quality of the product they deliver is meant to be of the highest, most "durable" quality and that that's where the upside lies. I understand that. That said, this isn't why it's more difficult to access/repair. It's more difficult to access/repair because they don't want users to attempt their own repairs. In fact, they're actively working towards preventing it for fear of destroying the product. They've begun soldering parts to the board to prevent users from performing their own repairs. You can't convince me that they're soldering RAM to the motherboard because it "makes the system more stable and durable". They're trying to make sure that all money is funneled to them, and they do that by soldering the parts users would upgrade on their own (to avoid a ridiculous $200 charge for a RAM upgrade). That's why they were deemed "as unrepairable as you can get". That's a major slap in the face to their tech savvy users.

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And the reason there is not sufficient backlash about these sorts of problems is that with all the fairly decent hardware you'll find in a Macbook Pro, very few Apple users are the type to actually take advantage of it and do anything that pushes the hardware enough to touch those thermal limits.

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This is untrue. The problem shows up the most in unibody models with discrete graphics. When doing something as simple as watching a YouTube video in HD, it becomes insanely hot. While it doesn't hit the levels that Apple claims it can handle, it still gets jumps in temperature for menial tasks. It's not as simple as saying "Most people won't push it that hard."

The reason it's a problem in these MacBook Pro models is because, as I said before, there is a very significant flaw in the design. The temperatures Apple claims it can handle don't account for an issue in cooling. Sure, it can handle it for a little while, but with sustained high temperatures over the life of the machine, it's not going to hold up. Heat kills hardware. It's a fact that Apple uses the aluminum chassis, especially the bottom, as a form of heat dissipation. Look at it as a giant heatsink. This is all good and fun at idle temperatures, but anything beyond light web browsing sends heat skyrocketing. Because of the abysmal design and size of the fans, the heat simply isn't being handled as quickly as it should. Before I ever had a bad experience with a Mac, I was telling people that they were going to see issues with the higher end models over time. Comparable hardware in the same tier of laptop have a considerable amount more cooling methods. The slim form factor mixed with the attempt to use the case as a method of heat dissipation is causing these issues, period. Outside of the Razer Blade and few other high level laptops, there aren't any other laptops on the market that try to fit that much power in such a confined space that limits the ability to cool. Apple is sacrificing the longevity of their products for aesthetic purposes, and they keep going back to the same design when there are glaring issues every year or two that require major action.

As for your ASUS, you have to really keep their fans in good shape and all vents clean. Otherwise, you'll see some issues. They tend to have wide vents on those Republic of Gamers editions that allow a shitton of dust in.