Is it safe to buy a macbook?

[Atheus]

I really want this machine but I've heard bad things about random shutdowns, battery failures, even burns and fires caused by the charger...

Are these issues real and as common as they appear to be? Or is this just the negative side of that whole crazy mac fanboy blogging thing? Anyone here actually seen a failed one?

The other downside is that I'm going to put Windows on it, which may cause Steve Jobs to personally hunt me down and smash the laptop with a wooden mallet, but I believe that is covered by standard warranty.

 

[Brainonska511]

Is Windows going to be your main OS? If so, consider getting something else. Otherwise, I see no problem getting a Macbook. Btw, it isn't a problem with the Apple warranty (or anything else) if you install Windows using boot camp.

 

[TheStu]

I agree with Brainonska. If you intend to use Windows primarily, get an hp, dell, asus, etc. Macs are made to run OS X, and the OS is made to run on the hardware. My macbook has been a champ the past 14 months, and in all likelihood will continue to work great for another 14+ months.

However, just putting Windows on it is no big deal, pretty easy to do assuming you actually spend 2 minutes doing research and you use BootCamp. Once Windows is on there, it runs no differently than if it was on a non Mac computer. Or you can use Virtualization for Windows (which is my preferred method) for those rare times that I need Windows, I pretty much never need the full power of a native OS.

 

[Atheus]

Well it wouldn't just have windows, it would have 3 or 4 operating systems on it - the advantage of doing this with a intel-mac is that I can have OSX as one of those operating systems.

I'm a developer and I like the idea of having all the platforms I need right there in front of me. Set up a new server from a native Unix command line, switch to windows and code up (e.g) a website, switch to OSX to test the frontend on mac browsers, switch back to Linux to run security testing on the backend... sweeeeet...

Mainly I'm concerned about these supposed hardware problems. I can't have an unreliable laptop for work.

Macs are made to run OS X, and the OS is made to run on the hardware.

Well these days they're just X86 machines like almost everything else. I very much doubt windows would run slower on the macbook than anything else of similar spec.

 

[TheStu]

That was not at all what I was saying, that windows would be slower. It runs just as well, which is what I said in my post. What I meant by them being made to run OS X, is that you are buying an Apple computer, that machine, designed by Apple, is made to run OS X. It doesn't matter if Sony sells a system with the exact same specs, the mac was made to run OS X.

 

[Tarrant64]

Originally posted by: TheStu
That was not at all what I was saying, that windows would be slower. It runs just as well, which is what I said in my post. What I meant by them being made to run OS X, is that you are buying an Apple computer, that machine, designed by Apple, is made to run OS X. It doesn't matter if Sony sells a system with the exact same specs, the mac was made to run OS X.

For the most part, that's correct. Mac's are coming pretty damn close to joining the rest of the PC hardware market, I think anyways. It was a big step moving towards Intel processors.