Been using UNIX since the late 80s; Linux since the mid-90s; virtualization since the early 2000s and spent the past few years working in the cloud space.
Location
Alexandria, VA, USA
Education
B.S. Psychology from Pennsylvania State University
I carried an MBP for three years for work. My boss, at the time, hated all things Microsoft and forced us all onto MBPs. Consequently, I had to run VMware on it to be able to do the things I needed to do, because, at the time, a lot of the tooling I needed to use on behalf of my customers just wouldn't run native in OSX.
It was, overall, a Bad Time™. Apple's business repair support was beyond a joke. I got to be waaaaaaaaay too familiar with the spinning beachball. The thing ran hotter than any of my HP workstation-replacement laptops ever have (and those things are heat-beasts). Software that was ported to OSX usually did some combination of not work as well, had missing features and/or suffered bad memory leaks. The whole "we'll tell you how you can run your window manager/lay out your desktop" didn't help my feelings, either. And, dammit, I want a track-pad with actual buttons (preferably, more than one).
Been using UNIX since the late 80s; Linux since the mid-90s; virtualization since the early 2000s and spent the past few years working in the cloud space.
Location
Alexandria, VA, USA
Education
B.S. Psychology from Pennsylvania State University
Most people tell me similar. However, no one's said to me, "yep: if you buy business class support from Apple, if a part fails, they'll have the replacement FedExed to wherever you happen to be within 24 hours (or a human on-site for more-complex problems)." Even getting a maxed-out HP and adding on the cost of that kind of warranty-service still results in a lower out-the-door price than an MacBook. That, if my MacBook fails, I have to get an appointment with a "genius" at the local Apple store – appointments which may not be available before my next work-day – just to get the MacBook seen (and, if there is an actual hardware issue, it has to be sent off-site) means that Apples just aren't suitable for someone that absolutely relies on the availability of their computer to bring in money. I've been through the laughable support that Apple offers. Never again.
Been using UNIX since the late 80s; Linux since the mid-90s; virtualization since the early 2000s and spent the past few years working in the cloud space.
Location
Alexandria, VA, USA
Education
B.S. Psychology from Pennsylvania State University
Maybe they're sturdier, now, but the 2004-vintage MBP was not suitable for use by traveling consultants. The wear-and-tear of slogging through airports, daily setup and teardown at hotels and client-sites (and the slogs back and forth between them), they just didn't cope well with it. And the utter lack of meaningful hardware support means that they just weren't business-suitable.
If you don't offer on-site hardware support, you're not a supplier of business-oriented systems. Apple may have changed since then, but, they lost me forever with their "marginally better than Acer/ASUS/Toshiba/etc." level of service.
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I carried an MBP for three years for work. My boss, at the time, hated all things Microsoft and forced us all onto MBPs. Consequently, I had to run VMware on it to be able to do the things I needed to do, because, at the time, a lot of the tooling I needed to use on behalf of my customers just wouldn't run native in OSX.
It was, overall, a Bad Time™. Apple's business repair support was beyond a joke. I got to be waaaaaaaaay too familiar with the spinning beachball. The thing ran hotter than any of my HP workstation-replacement laptops ever have (and those things are heat-beasts). Software that was ported to OSX usually did some combination of not work as well, had missing features and/or suffered bad memory leaks. The whole "we'll tell you how you can run your window manager/lay out your desktop" didn't help my feelings, either. And, dammit, I want a track-pad with actual buttons (preferably, more than one).
Really soured me on the whole Apple ecosystem. :)
Almost the exact opposite of my experience.
I've had terrible experience with HP laptops.
You should use what works best for you.
Most people tell me similar. However, no one's said to me, "yep: if you buy business class support from Apple, if a part fails, they'll have the replacement FedExed to wherever you happen to be within 24 hours (or a human on-site for more-complex problems)." Even getting a maxed-out HP and adding on the cost of that kind of warranty-service still results in a lower out-the-door price than an MacBook. That, if my MacBook fails, I have to get an appointment with a "genius" at the local Apple store – appointments which may not be available before my next work-day – just to get the MacBook seen (and, if there is an actual hardware issue, it has to be sent off-site) means that Apples just aren't suitable for someone that absolutely relies on the availability of their computer to bring in money. I've been through the laughable support that Apple offers. Never again.
I've never had to bring an Apple product in for service.
I'll never buy from HP again.
We can keep going like this all day.
Maybe they're sturdier, now, but the 2004-vintage MBP was not suitable for use by traveling consultants. The wear-and-tear of slogging through airports, daily setup and teardown at hotels and client-sites (and the slogs back and forth between them), they just didn't cope well with it. And the utter lack of meaningful hardware support means that they just weren't business-suitable.
If you don't offer on-site hardware support, you're not a supplier of business-oriented systems. Apple may have changed since then, but, they lost me forever with their "marginally better than Acer/ASUS/Toshiba/etc." level of service.