[ale] [OT] Mac prices (was OT - old hardware)

[tfreeman at intel.digichem.net]

On Thu, 12 Jun 2003, aaron wrote:

> On Wednesday 11 June 2003 14:20, Hogg, Russell E wrote:
> > Speaking of used hardware,  I've always wanted a MAC to play around with.
> > Anybody know of a good place to get a (slightly) used MAC?
> > 
> > The new ones are gorgeous, but cost almost as much as my last car.
> 
<<snip some fine points>>

A simple opinion, YMWV (Your Milage Will Vary). I like computers, and 
sometimes am willing to work hard to make them work at all for my 
purposes. I put much of my family (children/parents and so forth) on Macs 
because for me they just work. And continue to work as a rule. The rule of 
thumb around here has been to pitch it in the trash if Mac based and it 
doesn't work the first time. Anything else gets fiddled with.

On commodity PCs, I'll upgrade the sound or the video or the whatever for 
giggles and chuckles and discover that it was worth it. This is much 
harder to do with Mac (since everything is built in in the first place), 
but I generally don't find much incentive to do so either - the original 
equipment is fully good enough as is. Additionally, things don't seem to 
get wedged quite as often, which when you are trying to straighten things 
out over the phone with my mother - you will value almost as much as life 
itself. (In giving the details on a keystroke by keystroke basis, you also 
get to filter out the latest antics of the cat, the pool temperature, 
current political opinions...)

At the end of the day, I've not generally found Macs to be overpriced, 
although the upfront cost is often a little jaring. I've found the 
difference between the upfront cost and the ongoing costs generally about 
correct - pay more upfront, and pay less later. 


-- 
=============================================
If you think Education is expensive
Try Ignorance
                   Author Unknown
============================================

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