MacBook Pro: are they really worth it?

nick_scheu
Fri, 13 Aug 2010 00:14:40 +0000

That’s a complicated question. Firstly, market share does not equal quality. McDonald’s does not have the very best french fries, even though they sell the most. Budweiser isn’t the best beer, even though it has the highest sales (I’m assuming–maybe it’s Coors, but the example still holds). Windows isn’t the best operating system, just because it has the most users. iPhone isn’t the best smartphone, just because it is the best selling smartphone (in terms of device, not OS). A product very well might be, but there’s not necessarily any correlation between market share and quality.

The most popular products combine price and quality (which has many dimensions). Whatever product is “good enough” in those two categories is the most popular, even though the product may not be the best of its type.

As for the difference between Linux and Windows Me/Vista, I think its clear that Me and Vista offered a higher overall quality than any Linux distribution. Vista and Me weren’t as stable (depending on hardware configuration), fast, or well-designed (e.g., the UNIX user accounts model, etc) as Linux. Where they made up for those deficiencies was with availability (i.e., more hardware options with Windows preinstalled) and momentum (i.e., there was already a large installed base of Windows users). In short, Windows was and is more convenient to use than Linux.

The same was true of Macs even as late as 2004 or 2005. The hardware was too expensive, the software wasn’t compatible enough, and the machines still used PowerPC chips.

Today, OS X has made up for those shortcomings, but PCs still own market share because of price alone. Windows PCs are good enough for the corporate world, with dedicated IT departments. That’s where the majority of Windows PCs are sold.

My point on the willingness of geeks to install OS X is to show that it’s a technically superior operating system, in the same way that Linux is. Geeks who are able to build their own computers and create custom drivers are in a decent place to evaluate a system’s value. Why go through all the trouble to crack Apple’s protection measures, make custom drivers, etc., if Windows and Linux offer the same thing, but are easier to install?

That said, I suspect that Linux is far more popular among homebrew types than OS X. There are no concerns over legality, hardware is better supported, and many geeks like using a fully open source system.

Still, OS X offers the advantages of UNIX, but with much greater usability, and superior third-party applications. That’s why the Hackintosh people do what they do. They’re not installing OS X on an HP as a fashion statement.