I use an internal SSD in our mobile units. They take a serious beating and get written to on a daily basis. No failures yet and we plan to use them for 5 years before rotating them out of service. Though we haven't hit the five year mark on the oldest ones yet. Just over three years on them right now I think.
- Status
You can also add SSD drives to other machines. Aftermarket ones are cheaper than pre-installed. I don't have one (yet), but definitely will on my next laptop. You can apparently boot a mac with a SSD in ~7s instead of ~40s, or so I've read. Not that rebooting matters much when the machine will stay up till you reboot for a sw update, but it demonstrates the wicked fast read speeds of a SSD. Apps launch almost instantly.
You likely write a lot more than that to cache browsing the web, although I don't know all the vagaries of Safari on Mac.
Funny you should ask that... I cleared my cache last night because I was curious. After a day of heavy browsing, my cache is only 407MB. All browsers should have about the same cache usage, so nothing unique to Safari.
Hmmm... I hadn't even thought about the Macbook Air. It would be nice and light, wouldn't it?
Ooops, my dumb head was thinking of the ipad! I'm so poor I don't even keep up with the tech specs of macs anymore!
-typed on a g4 powerbook, hope it lasts me another 6 years!
-typed on a g4 powerbook, hope it lasts me another 6 years!
I got my MacBook before iPad was launched. I can see iPad being a decent substitute depending on what the user's needs are. If you need to run software programs, then of course it isn't the right choice. But if you just need internet access while on the road on a normal sized screen, then it would be a great choice. Originally that's why I was looking for something lightweight. But it still wouldn't suit my needs because I wouldn't be able to sync the iPhone. Charging of phone & bats can still be done with a wall charger, but it would be a nice enhancement for a future model.
I originally got back into macs when I got tired of the proprietary nature of windows. OSX is built on Darwin, giving most of the benefits of linux and unix when wanted, but the convenience of OSX when thats what you want. As a company Apple is moving away from this convenient but flexible model. I use android phones because they offer me that flexibility when I want it. I can use whatever custom software build I want, and most of the software is open source so many many builds are available. Apple has the iphone completely locked down so that any customization requires true hacking. blah. Same with the ipad. I bet it won't be long before they start locking up OSX itself.
I have this crazy idea that once I buy a device, i should be able to do whatever the heck I want or need to with it without compromising it's core functions. Apple is now opposed to this idea so they can lock users into their proprietary world of upsales, accessories, and content stores. Works fine if the niche they want are the frivolously consuming upper classes. But those aren't the people that got apple to where they are today, and I feel they ignore their previous base to their own peril.
I have this crazy idea that once I buy a device, i should be able to do whatever the heck I want or need to with it without compromising it's core functions. Apple is now opposed to this idea so they can lock users into their proprietary world of upsales, accessories, and content stores. Works fine if the niche they want are the frivolously consuming upper classes. But those aren't the people that got apple to where they are today, and I feel they ignore their previous base to their own peril.
The last few times I've speced out mac and pc laptops with nearly identical features, the mac has been very comparable. The "problem" is that apple tends to use premium hardware. The upside is the machines have more longevity. My household has 4 desktops and a laptop. I used to refresh my machines every 3-4 years because I'm an impatient stickler for responsiveness, but I have no intention of replacing my 4 year old laptop. The kid's three machines are 5+ years old but they think they are fast enough for what they do.
One of the tricks is to wait until there is a model refresh, and then buy the previous generation's top end. It's often better than the low-end of the new models. Apple's reconditioned products are indistinguishable from a new product, and carry the same warranty. For past decade, I've only bought reconditioned products and never had a problem. Heck, after 20 years of buying macs I've never had a machine die.
Then there's the intangible asset of not having to reinstall the os periodically, worrying about viruses, waste time optimizing things, etc. I've converted many hesitant people (mainly due to price) and they all wish they'd done so earlier. If you need to run windows apps, you can boot directly into windows, or use vmware to run windows apps directly in os x with little performance degradation.
Almost everything underlying the graphical interface is open source, and apple contributes to many open source projects. They couldn't lock up os x even if they wanted to. You can even thank apple for the open source webkit that is used by almost every cell phone's web browser, including android devices.
I have no idea what you mean by proprietary accessories other than the magsafe power connector. Everything else is completely standard since the gumdrop imacs. By upsales, you probably mean the all-in-one designs, and that's fair, as is the app store for ios devices. I just jailbreak and do what I want, but really don't use anything other than winterboard and boss prefs.
I'm not a zealot. I've helped people spec out windows machine if it fits their needs. I just take mild exception to oft repeated criticism that were true a decade ago.
True about running windows on the Mac. What stopped me was I didn't want the cost of buying the Windows software (like $200+?)
frivolous upper class huh? Well! Guess I'll just take my Louis Vuitton bag, turn on my Christian Louboutin heels and drive off in my Lamborghini to the harbor where my yacht awaits. Ta Ta!
frivolous upper class huh? Well! Guess I'll just take my Louis Vuitton bag, turn on my Christian Louboutin heels and drive off in my Lamborghini to the harbor where my yacht awaits. Ta Ta!
Yeah, that does suck. M$ charges a wee bit much for their os.
Huh? Is that a sarcastic joke?
If it's a reference to premium, I was referring to them sometimes getting new intel cpus before anyone else, usually using the latest high-end intel processors instead of last year's low end, incorporating dual graphics cards, etc. That's not true across the board, but is often the case. That's partly why they have good longevity.
Huh? Is that a sarcastic joke?
I think starsong was responding to this:
MS is a software company. They can't hide the cost of software development in the hardware sales.
(But it's still overpriced nonetheless)
- Status
Similar threads
