She had never been able to get the hang of computers, but took to the iPad immediately.

I bet she thought she was so 'cool.'

Apple markets to everyone.

I would recommend Apple.

It is an excellent idiot-proof product.

I have PCs and a Linux machine as well, but they are for testing.

Apple's bulletproof OS and security makes for higher productiveness.

I can make a Windows machine sing Embraceable You upside down in spats. But after a lifetime of that, I just got tired of constantly having to optimize the damn things.
Typing this on a Macbook Air I can take anywhere and pull out anywhere cuz it's lightweight and the battery lasts a long time as there's zero moving parts. I think of it as a tablet with an attached keyboard.
As for phones, I had an Android and it suddenly would hang all the freakin time. Dumped it, got an Iphone, haven't looked back.
I can get things done, anywhere, anytime with these tools. With PCs and Android phones, you spend half your time getting the damn things to work in the first place.

I'm writing this on an Air, which is light enough to drag everywhere. I also have an iPhone (fought smartphones of any kin until the 5 came out, then switched & glad of it).

But of course I fit the stereotype. I'm 68 years old, so of course I'm computer illiterate. Well, except for the FORTRAN course I took in 1964. And the period in the 70's & 80's when I taught grad-level statistics & was the resident geek on a few psych research teams. I was late getting into personal computers, though. Not until 1982 with an Osborne running CP/M. Then on to DOS, Windows 3, etc., all the way up to Vista. I looked at that & switched over to Apple. I still have a few XP boxes around, mostly dedicated to old software that I wrote & don't want to re-write, plus some specialized programs that don't come in OS X flavor.

So, yeah, I'm an old computer illiterate happy if ignorant as I plug along on my MBA.

and was in the tech field at one time. I do not like Windows computers.

I did not like paying hundreds of dollars only to come home from fixing Windows computers all day so I could be Microsoft's field tech at home.

That's why I prefer Apples. Not because I don't know how to troubleshoot computers. But because I do.

That said, I am open to what Google Chrome is offering, provided I don't have to become an unpaid worker for them too.

(Parent has me on ignore for being insufficiently pro-Apple, but it's worth adding to the discussion)

OS X just works, in the best of all possible ways, I don't have to lift a finger to make it functional - but at the same time, should I choose to bend it to my will, some of the most powerful tools that the history of computing have created are right there at my disposal. Hell, sometimes that way is easier; I keep Terminal on speed dial because it's proven to be such a handy way to fix many a problem with a minimum of fuss. It's like a proper computer-controlled-manual flappy-paddle gearbox...I can just set it and forget it, or make it do exactly what I want when I want.

iOS is the antithesis of that, and the current trend of iOS-ifying OS X leaves me wondering when I won't have su at my disposal, and when I shall be switching to BSD.

then Apple wouldn't have to debase the word genius to describe their in store tech support staff.

Sort of like if North Korea were an actual democratic republic they wouldn't call themselves the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Personally I like tinkering way to much to own a modern Mac. I do however have a hackintosh and a working 13 year old powerbook among my computers.

Buy an Apple.

Apple has helped a lot of older people get online.

And claiming that only rich people buy Apple is total bullshit.

Apple didn't become the #1 by selling to the 1%.

It doesn't mean only hipsters buy them.

the iphone got used for 3 days and now sits in a drawer.

They both wanted android tablets for xmas and couldn't care less about the iCraps.

opinion. Not one that I share, but interesting opinion.

I'm fairly tech savvy and had PCs for years. When I got my first Apple my tech people at work were telling me that they'd come over and help me "transition" to Apple. The Apple Store offered a class for those taking the leap. I was almost dreading my decision, but when I got it home, plugged it in, it was the most user-friendly system I'd ever encountered.

It is not socially exclusive. I'm pretty poor and have to save for quite a while to get a new Apple product, but to me it's worth it.

So your proclamation is totally wrong when it comes to me. The very person you say Apple SHOULD be for. It is.

I found I couldn't tweak a Mac, but I can Windows. Maybe by the time you got your apple product you had lost interest in tweaking, or never were interested???

Nothing is perfect and regardless, there's always something I wish "it" could do but doesn't, but I find that less with a Mac. Instead of "oh, I have to do this to get that", it's "wow, that's all I have to do?". At my age, every minute counts.

what I want them to do and make it impossible for me to adjust them to my liking as Windows allows me to do very simply.

and disembowels it! She loves it!

ETA: For me, anyway, Macs are already pretty much to my liking -- so no need or desire to do anything. It's just the system that works for me, and I'm happy with Apple. I understand where you're coming from, though.

I'll be damned if my computer will be allowed to say "no" when I tell it "yes" or visa versa.

That pretty much has you covered now.

Can you load OSX onto a Windows machine?

implied Apples didn't do everything Windows machines did.

I wouldn't want to either.

You are the perfect candidate to use Linux and I'd recommend Ubuntu. For someone like you the learning curve is almost nonexistent, it's totally free, and you will find that your old computer is much better than your think it is.

Who knows, you might even decide that computing isn't an expensive and frustrating drudgery that you must endure and decide to go all out geek.

my Macs and now my iPad.

I don't view computing as a frustrating drudgery -- just the opposite. And although the up front cost is higher than other options, to me it's money well spent.

If I wasn't happy, I'd definitely give this some thought, and I appreciate your advice.

But I'm staying where I am.

that there is a faster, more secure, and more reliable alternative that costs nothing and doesn't rely on human suffering to turn obscene profits.

...but then came my first Android smartphone. Open source and MUCH more fun and functional. In fact, I'm on my 3rd Android smartphone (the AWESOME Galaxy Note).

Apple rocks, it works and it does not have to be updated every time I turn it on.

I've spent a dozen hours in the last month screwing with MIcrosoft and Abode. Just today one of my co-workers installed Explorer 10 and afterwards he couldn't print a thing. I hit restore and a it started working again to when it was installed, I have no idea why. Every week it's something new. The new Outlook is always broke.

I bought a new Chrome book because it was so cheap and didn't have any Microsoft in it but my Google Docs is in Chinese and I can't figure out how to change it.

I bought the first Android phone and switched to iPhone cause it works better.

Wish I could afford a macbook air to take to take to bars, airports and such but chromebook is a great cheap internet appliance. I hate windows but I need a program for my business that only works with windows.

Apple A
Google A-
MIcrosoft D

...and that don't come encrusted with hokey and obstructionist garbage.

Anyone who has been watching tech trends for the last 15 years should have no problem at all understanding how Apple got to be so infuriatingly 'cool'. Apple are often the first to bring new hardware features to mass market, and they put a nice UI on it all vertically integrated. For years, they insisted on selling only hardware that was sleek and stylish while most other brands bland or stylistically adrift.

There is less of a gap today, but typically Macs would remain usable for longer because OS X was not a magnet for registry gunk and and adware junk. And the grind of virus scanners hasn't been necessary because most users know how to stop themselves from installing trojans.

For a long while, average Windows PC lifespan was an abysmal 3 years. Windows usage became associated with grinding pain. And Microsoft has probably the largest body of technicians for any type of vendor who actively dislike the products and the brand.

OTOH, hardware freedom is certainly becoming an issue with them. Personally, I thought I would be safe sticking with Macs and avoiding their other stuff. But the new non-serviceable Macbook Pro has got me worried..... I needed another laptop this year and bought a Thinkpad to run Qubes OS.

to extend the Kabul metaphor. Nor do I think that selling people a product that does not grant them access to the software's inner workings is immoral. It's a consumer good, not a digital society.

Ideally there would be a competitor to Apple that would offer the same kind of ease of functionality and no-worries operation (even if it means the "horror" of software being like a closed society) without the outrageous prices and ironfisted grip on the customer's pubic hair when it comes to headphones, and chargers.

You're right. Apple is too expensive. But as far as exclusivity goes, just as many people are barred from some types of devices by the fact that they don't know how to set up and maintain other them properly as people are barred by apple's price.

And Fuck Steve Jobs.

I have Bose headphones I use with both my Iphone and Macbook. I also use a Logitech optical mouse with my Macbook. Just plugged in the little usb thingie into the usb port and voila. Plugged in some nice speakers to the other usb port (the speakers have a usb hub where I can plug in any other usb devices I'd need). When I'm at home I have my little computer plugged into these devices and I'm ready to go. Took me all of a minute to put those two devices on and get them running when I got my computer.

I changed the OP to read "connecting wire"

And Iphone or Ipad does have some (needlessly) proprietery jacks, but I should not have said headphones.

XML is not truly backwards compatible from word 2008 for Mac to word 2007 for windows.

You know what is worst, not that was not Mac, them filters are MS proprietary.

So go sing that song somewhere else.

Oh and the netbook is far from as resilient as either the MacBook, going eight years, or the Ipad

software that you have to pay for forever to update.

Fuck the billionaires, learn how to use a computer and unleash the power of your machine!

It's frustrating, because you have to tell it to do everything, like find the wi-fi and turn on Japanese capability, and then it pauses to download some updates for programs that I never use. Or maybe I do. Who knows?

With the Mac, it automatically finds any wi-fi that I've used before and asks only if I'm in an unfamiliar location. Once I set Japanese as my second language option, that's it. Forever. It checks for updates every week, tells me what's available and what it's for, and asks me if I want it.

When there are problems (and that rarely happens), I get free tech support by taking it to the nearest Apple store (I live equidistant from two of them), where the techies can fiddle with it in person.

Eventually I bought an iPad. It does almost everything the Windows netbook does and with a lot less fuss. Furthermore, it and the iPhone are seamlessly integrated with the computer. The iPad serves as a one-stop entertainment center on those long plane trips to Japan.

I find that Windows fanatics and compulsive Apple bashers are people who like to geek around with their computers. I don't geek around with my computer, just as I don't try to soup up my car.

Apple users tend to be smug assholes, in my experience. And most of them seem not to realise that their evangelistic attitude is really quite off-putting. (See: Apple fanboys in pretty much any online community ever who respond to someone asking a question about a PC problem with "get a Mac"...blissfully ignorant of the socioeconomic and classist implications of their attitude, which, let's face it, is kind of like saying "oh, I'm really sorry you're having a problem with your Ford! You should buy a BMW. I LOVE mine.)

And Apple, the company, are also assholes. ("We use commodity hardware like Intel CPUs and NVIDIA graphics but if you actually want to upgrade you can't just buy a part off the shelf because we have custom boards! So you have to buy from us at 100% markup!&quot