Just a bit of fun

No... Er, I'm washing my hair...

If they bring out one that's not been nailed down so hard in terms of expansion possibilities then yes I would.
Doesn't seem like that's happening any time soon though so probably not - PIE FTW!

In my last computer replacement I went from a 2008 MacPro to a PC.
Spent about the same amount of money as I would have on a mac and got something that would comfortably flatten pretty much the entire Mac lineup at the time and is probably still reasonably competitive.
My only gripe is Windows went a bit flaky so I'm about to reinstall it but it's not like that never happens with Macs either as I'm sure big_D will attest to.

i polled no as i have had macs and would not go back to them. as stated above very limited options to upgrade so you can use future OSX releases ...

Swmbo loves the idea of getting an iMac. Personally, if I had lots of dough, I'd buy a windows server to stream videos and music around the house, and I'd upgrade my old gaming laptop for a new one.

I voted yes as I may need to buy one, depending on how the experiment I'll be doing over the weekend, which involves running Unity on a Virtual Mac goes.

I voted no

I have never really used a mac except a dabble at a friends house - and found it really restrictive

I am sure if I used one for some time I would get used to it but I see no reason to learn to use an obscure OS - for the same reason that if I was to learn a language I would learn a widely used one rather than some obscure dialect spoken by 3 people and a goat

No, and I've been a Mac user since 1991.

Right now the mac desktop line is simply not good value at all. Effectively the cheapest decent computer you can get that's a Mac is either the base model macbook air which is several years old in reality, or the topspec mac mini which will cost you roughly 50% more than than a roughly equivalent windows box. It won't be quite as nice, or tiny, or quiet, but it'll be several hundred quid cheaper and that's not to be sniffed at.

My Main Mac (A core i7 27" iMac) blew a gasket recently. It's either the hard drive or the main board that's failed. if it's the former, fine. if it's the latter, well, the repair cost is less than a pretty decently specified PC costs and that's a five year old computer we're talking about. I really can't justify to myself paying 300-400 quid more for MacOS. Windows 10 is not windows XP, the gap really isn't all that big any more. I can get 99% of what I want to do done on Windows, and for the 1% I have my 'media mac' low spec mac mini that will do fine.

Although I did want to vote 'no and pie please'!

Well yes, but I've only ever used Macs. I think Apple don't care anymore about their computer line or their pro customers but I really don't like the look of Windows 10 so better the devil you know. I'd get a 27" iMac...that would do nicely.

Yes, but only if it is raining and I forgot by brollie!!

Oh you mean one of those funny things that look like a computer??



Seriously though, the hardware is quite good. Shame about the software though. I onc had the ask of removing all traces of iTunes from a client computer. Had I known how difficult that is I would have scrubbed the machine and re-installed everthing else instead.

Not sure. For work purposes you wouldn't get me using anything that's not OSX tbh. The hardware lineups at the moment aren't looking great though. If they'd updated the CPU/RAM/HDD options on the MBP with the last refresh then we might be talking, but almost nothing happened on that front.

If they ever update the Mac Pro lineup then that would definitely tempt me.

Yes.

Mark

I used Apple ][s and had my first Mac in 1987 - company computer; at home I had an Amiga 500.

I went for several years (1992 to 2007) without regularly using a Mac. They went from virus infested pieces of junk to being very nice again, and with the swap to Intel architecture, it looked like they might have a future and I could run Windows and Linux VMs on it. With my lecturer discount, the iMac 24" wasn't any more expensive than a good 24" display + mini tower PC with a similar specification (it would have had a desktop processor and not a throttled laptop version, but otherwise similar).

Many friends (many on the old forums) also told me to buy a Mac, because they are better than Windows PCs, they last longer... I argued at the time, that they used the same components and that the life of the Mac shouldn't vary from that of an equivalent Windows PC. It turned out I was wrong... The my 2004 laptop is running Windows 7 now and will remain in support until 2020, my 2008 tower now has an SSD and is running Linux Mint and Windows 10 and has "indefinite" support at the moment, my 2010 Sony Vaio has been upgraded with an SSD and is nearly as fast as my 2016 HP Spectre X360, both of which run Windows 10 and have long support periods.

On the Mac front, my 2007 24" iMac is no longer supported by Apple, they stopped doing OS upgrades with Lion years ago and it hasn't had any security updates for over 2 years, so it cannot sit on my network or go on the Internet. The same fate has befallen the Mac mini I bought my youngest step-daughter, it is a 2008 model and Apple discontinued support for it at the same time as the iMac - she now has a Lenovo Yoga 2 2-in-1 hybrid with touchscreen. Only the 2008 MacBook Pro that my eldest step-daughter has is still half way current, she is considering putting in an SSD to keep it going until she leaves university.

When I bought the Sony Vaio, I seriously looked at a 17" MacBook Pro at the time. The problem was, the fully loaded (Core i7 quad core, 8GB RAM, 500GB HD, Blu-Ray, Full HD 15,6" display) on the Sony cost around 1300€, the 17" MacBook of the time didn't get quad core i7 processors, just dual core, with the same RAM, disk and display resolution, but only a DVD, no Blu-Ray, came in at around 3000€. I just couldn't justify spending more than double the money for a lower specification MacBook Pro, when all of the software I needed runs on both platforms - and some of it more reliably and consistently under Windows. So I took the jump back to Windows. After that, I went for a Surface Pro 3 (which my previous employer bought off of me, so I could use it at work, so it had to go back, when I left) and the HP Spectre X360. Both of these are relatively high end devices, with "pro" price points, but both significantly less expensive than an "equivalent" Mac - if you can call them equivalent, which MacBook models have touch screens with pen/pencil support and either a 360° hinge or a removable keyboard to use them as a tablet?

With Windows 10, I see no advantage to using OS X (well, since Windows 7, I haven't seen any advantage to using OS X, unless you need the *NIX command line compatibility; and with Windows 10 including a virtual installation of Ubuntu Linux, even that argument has disappeared).

I also find the touch screen invaluable in meetings. Being able to make notes directly into OneNote using the pen and have it instantly make the handwritten text indexed and searchable, plus the ability to make diagrams etc. is a huge advantage and not something I would like to lose. As many have said, the new Surface Studio is something I would have expected Apple to release (it is essentially a combination of Cintiq 27" digitizer and an iMac in one device), but it is a Windows device, from Microsoft. You know, staid, dyed in the wool, boring Microsoft. And what was Apple's answer? Remove the function keys and replace them with a touch strip! A nightmare for any professional user who is reliant on applications that use the function keys... It may not be such a problem under OS X, but most of the Windows applications I use rely on F-key shortcuts, if you don't want to take your hands away from the keyboard and use the mouse.

It is a real shame, Apple used to lead the way, but it seems they have lost their edge recently. Where other manufacturers put in new innovations into their new devices, what are the key differentiation for the new iPhone and MacBook Pro?
"The iPhone 7 is great, we removed the headphone jack, buy our expensive ear pods."
"The new MacBook Pro great, we removed all those useful ports you use every day, so you will need to buy dongles to use all your existing hardware, maybe, and we removed the function keys!"

The other manufacturers are also moving to USB-C, but apart from the most compact models (MacBook equivalents), they almost all include at least 1 traditional USB port alongside the USB-C, as well as DP or HDMI, which makes sense for the transition period. You don't need to replace all your peripherals today and you don't need to buy expensive dongles to keep using your existing peripherals.

With the removal of the MagSafe connector, are we going to see more broken Macs, as people trip over the cables and they land on the floor. or was MagSafe a red herring, used to generate extra income? And, what about all of those Mac users who invested in the Thunderbolt Display? How are they going to connect their MagSafe less and Thunderbolt portless MacBook Pros to their display? I guess a USB-C -> Thunderbolt dongle should help with the display, as USB-C can also carry TB signals, but the MagSafe connector will be hanging in the wind and you will still need to use another USB-C port to charge the MacBook Pro, whilst it is attached to the dock.

I liked Apple a lot, but I really don't understand them today.

Have to agree with a lot of what Dave has said. I don't mind so much about a desktop or laptop computer not having a touchscreen, but the Mac line is moribund and has been for some time. While I can go with USB C - things have to move on and someone's got to bite the bullet - adding a touch strip to the laptops isn't something anybody asked for, needed or frankly wanted, and I'm far from convinced on it's value. On the actual desktops, they are literally years behind the curve. Years. That's a lifetime in desktop computing terms. They feel massively complacent, and that's not ever good.

The only reason right now to buy a desktop Mac is if you're an iOS developer so you need XCode. I really, really can't think of another one.

Nicely summed up.

I'm not against USB-C, I think it is the future, or at least the next generation of peripheral port. But at the moment we are in a transition period and having only USB-C and forcing people to buy expensive dongles, or replace their peripherals wholesale, doesn't feel right.

When Apple dropped the floppy, most people were already getting most of their software on CD or a privileged few by download. Likewise the switch to USB 1.0, the keyboard and mouse came with the device, so dropping the Deskbus wasn't that big of a problem - apart from the relatively poor quality of the newer keyboards, compared to the older ADB ones. The Mac never had a proper serial port or parallel port, unlike the PC, so the transition was easier.

But this time they have taken all of the ports that Mac users use regularly, and were more or less proprietary to Apple anyway, and killed off all of their own hardware as "legacy", heck even the iPhone 7 comes with a USB-A cable, so can't be attached to a modern Mac, the latest iPhone 7 is a LEGACY device in Apple's own words and deeds! And that isn't taking into account all of those professionals who drank the Apple cool-aid and bought Thunderbolt drive enclosures and video production hardware. All of them will need to calculate in the costs of a few dongles, when they buy new hardware. Okay, they aren't that expensive, compared to the rest of the hardware, but it is still an additional cost that has to be taken into account and it is yet another something that has to be plugged in between the peripheral and the computer, so another point of failure.