Macs are 3 times cheaper to own than Windows PCs, says IBM's IT guy • Hacker News Board

Re: Macs are 3 times cheaper to own than Windows PCs, says IBM's IT guy

#21

Post by jgforbes » Fri, Oct 21, 2016, 5:53 PM UTC

patwolf wrote: post #9

I'd like to know what percentage of help desk calls are related to hardware vs OS vs software. I can believe that the Mac hardware is more reliable. However, a lot of help desk calls I remember making were because some legacy software wasn't working which wasn't directly related to Windows, e.g. I can't read my lotus notes mail because there's a problem with my remote mailbox configuration. I'd like to know if those…

There could be other biases too. For instance, if the Mac users at IBM were in largely technical roles (e.g. working on their MacOS integration service) vs large non-technical departments working on Windows machines (e.g. HR and accounting).

It wouldn't be very surprising that technical departments had less help-desk complaints than non technical departments.

Re: Macs are 3 times cheaper to own than Windows PCs, says IBM's IT guy

#22

Post by wtfishackernews » Fri, Oct 21, 2016, 5:54 PM UTC

So they allow people to choose their platform since 2015 and then compare the support costs for brand new macs to all existing windows PCs?

Not to mention the possible selection bias since people chose a mac themselves and were not randomly sampled.

Re: Macs are 3 times cheaper to own than Windows PCs, says IBM's IT guy

#23

Post by paulmd » Fri, Oct 21, 2016, 5:54 PM UTC

drd93 wrote: post #14

santaclaus wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is Lenovo shipping laptops with high dpi displays?

Writing the response from my 3200x1800 13.3" screen. High enough for my tastes.

The 3K screens are seriously drool-worthy. I don't have a really pressing need to upgrade, but that 3K screen has gotten me wistfully playing with their laptop builder a couple times. It's literally quadruple the real-estate of my current screen (1600x900).

Re: Macs are 3 times cheaper to own than Windows PCs, says IBM's IT guy

#24

Post by werdna123 » Fri, Oct 21, 2016, 5:56 PM UTC

linkmotif wrote: post #2

Don't know about the stats, but this has definitely been the case for me. My late 2010 MBA worked for 5 years then broke one day. Apple fixed it in under 24 hours for $304.80 (that's with 8.75% NY tax) and I'm typing on it as we speak. PS the thing is basically indestructible... I have no excuse not to buy another some time in the future. Can't wait to try the 12" MB.

Why would you pay $300 to fix a 5yo MBA? Just dump it on eBay or CL and buy a new one...

Re: Macs are 3 times cheaper to own than Windows PCs, says IBM's IT guy

#25

Post by FollowSteph3 » Fri, Oct 21, 2016, 5:58 PM UTC

It's because most PCs people use are bottom of the barrel cheap. If you compare similarly priced PCs to Macs with similar business class builds (keyboards for laptops, etc) I highly suspect everything will balance out, at the very least be minimal.

Re: Macs are 3 times cheaper to own than Windows PCs, says IBM's IT guy

#26

Post by allemagne » Fri, Oct 21, 2016, 5:58 PM UTC

linkmotif wrote: post #2

Don't know about the stats, but this has definitely been the case for me. My late 2010 MBA worked for 5 years then broke one day. Apple fixed it in under 24 hours for $304.80 (that's with 8.75% NY tax) and I'm typing on it as we speak. PS the thing is basically indestructible... I have no excuse not to buy another some time in the future. Can't wait to try the 12" MB.

My own issues with my mid-2012 Unibody MacBook Pro: I've had to replace the main SATA cable twice for about $60 each time.

Also, a couple years ago updating to a specific version of OS X while LaTeX was installed caused the update process to freeze indefinitely, forcing you to reinstall everything. I had everything backed up, but it was a pain and could have easily caused me to lose important stuff if I was just a little bit lazier.

Still, everything runs smooth and great. Actually noticeably better than the 2015 hp ZBook I use for work.

Re: Macs are 3 times cheaper to own than Windows PCs, says IBM's IT guy

#27

Post by mschuster91 » Fri, Oct 21, 2016, 5:58 PM UTC

freehunter wrote: post #8

linkmotif wrote: post #2

Don't know about the stats, but this has definitely been the case for me. My late 2010 MBA worked for 5 years then broke one day. Apple fixed it in under 24 hours for $304.80 (that's with 8.75% NY tax) and I'm typing on it as we speak. PS the thing is basically indestructible... I have no excuse not to buy another some time in the future. Can't wait to try the 12" MB.

I agree but I would strongly hesitate to say "basically indestructible". Macs are incredibly destructible. They have a very thin glass screen, you could bend the chassis with your hands if you wanted to, and they're not even a little waterproof. How I would describe a MacBook is "quality". It's not especially durable, it just doesn't break down over time. Other laptops break in stupid ways. The hinges snap because it…

> The logic boards stress with the constant heat flux and end up breaking.

Oh no. Macbooks do suffer from this! Remember the NVIDIA lead-free-solder fiasco or the issue affecting a boatload of MBPs with Intel GPUs? At least they fixed my Fall 2011 MBP free of charge (logicboard swap). Getting my old Windows laptop fixed with the NV disaster was a whole other story.

Re: Macs are 3 times cheaper to own than Windows PCs, says IBM's IT guy

#28

Post by rpazyaquian » Fri, Oct 21, 2016, 5:58 PM UTC

freehunter wrote: post #8

linkmotif wrote: post #2

Don't know about the stats, but this has definitely been the case for me. My late 2010 MBA worked for 5 years then broke one day. Apple fixed it in under 24 hours for $304.80 (that's with 8.75% NY tax) and I'm typing on it as we speak. PS the thing is basically indestructible... I have no excuse not to buy another some time in the future. Can't wait to try the 12" MB.

I agree but I would strongly hesitate to say "basically indestructible". Macs are incredibly destructible. They have a very thin glass screen, you could bend the chassis with your hands if you wanted to, and they're not even a little waterproof. How I would describe a MacBook is "quality". It's not especially durable, it just doesn't break down over time. Other laptops break in stupid ways. The hinges snap because it…

> How I would describe a MacBook is "quality". It's not especially durable, it just doesn't break down over time.

I've definitely noticed the same thing. Almost every laptop (and computer, for that matter) has broken down within a year to a year and a half for some random dumb reason. Two of my laptops died due to messed up power supply connections on the motherboard, two others died due to the hinges completely snapping off, and another died because the hard drive failed - and that one was an aluminum iMac that I pawned off to my friend, who replaced the HDD and it works just fine still.

I've had my current MBP since 2012, and it's chugging along just fine - except for the hard drive, which I replaced with an SSD and have no problems with, and ironically enough the hinges, which totally cracked. I had to buy some replacement hinges off of iFixit, which I'm waiting on delivery for today.

Apple computers have by far been the longest lasting and least likely to crap out on me that I've ever had. I'm very happy with my old MBP, and the only reason I'm considering upgrading to a newer model is because I can tell this one might be on its way out in general.

The one thing stopping me is the price point... $1600+, yikes.

Re: Macs are 3 times cheaper to own than Windows PCs, says IBM's IT guy

#29

Post by Shengbo » Fri, Oct 21, 2016, 5:59 PM UTC

spullara wrote: post #18

protomyth wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yep, but add some relatives and it all goes bad How are Chromebooks for people who have to deal with "family / friends" support issues?

How do I run Minecraft on this thing? Goes badly.

That's a very specific problem.

Re: Macs are 3 times cheaper to own than Windows PCs, says IBM's IT guy

#30

Post by mschuster91 » Fri, Oct 21, 2016, 6:00 PM UTC

werdna123 wrote: post #24

linkmotif wrote: post #2

Don't know about the stats, but this has definitely been the case for me. My late 2010 MBA worked for 5 years then broke one day. Apple fixed it in under 24 hours for $304.80 (that's with 8.75% NY tax) and I'm typing on it as we speak. PS the thing is basically indestructible... I have no excuse not to buy another some time in the future. Can't wait to try the 12" MB.

Why would you pay $300 to fix a 5yo MBA? Just dump it on eBay or CL and buy a new one...

Because new MBPs have their RAM soldered and instead of SSDs weird NVMe sticks which you can't just put into an old Mac Pro/iMac and keep on working (or trivially upgrade). Oh and you can't just simply swap the battery (I needed Thanks but no thanks, I'll stick to my trustworthy Fall 2011 MBP.