Linda,
I had a really bad set of experiences with Apple back in 1995 when I bought a PB 520c. It spent about six months of its first year at Apple repair. Everything that could've gone wrong with it did (Memory failure, motherboard failure, monitor falling apart from the keyboard, keyboard damage, batteries failing to charge, system crashes all the time,....). All of that with a $3700 price tag. After a year, it had lost more than half its value and I didn't get to use it for half the time. The problem with the monitor took 3 months to fix and Apple even mailed my computer to the wrong address on one occasion. It probably would've been a little better if I hadn't taken the computer to Comp USA some of the time, but I have vowed to never buy a top of the line computer again. Now, my research lab is constantly buying new computers so I don't have to pay for one and can enjoy near top of the line all the time. We use both platforms which is nice. Still, I know that people have severe problems with Wintels. For example, we've had to reinstall Windows NT 4 on three PCs this year which is a several day task since there are so many drivers and patches that must be downloaded.
Right now I still feel that Apple is the better of two evils, but they are still not the company they once were. It is Steve's Job (nice pun, eh?) to restore the quality product and service they once delivered.
-Dylan |
